Hello Readers,
Thank you, NetGalley for the chance to read this ebook for free in exchange for an honest review
Spoilers
Margaret Beaumont finds herself the last remaining hope for the
House of Lancaster and has to navigate the delicate balance of power, showing
no fear whilst trying to maintain her power amongst the conspiratorial court
politics. Survival looks to be an issue, let alone rising to power once again.
Her son must be concealed and smuggled out of the Country before he is found
and executed he has a real claim to the throne that cannot be tolerated by the
victors. It falls to Margaret and her clerk, Christopher Urswicke to try and
turn a near-hopeless situation to their advantage.
Four bodies are discovered with their throats slit and it's up
to Ulswicke to unravel the mystery of who killed them and why they were
murdered. In order to save his mistress, Ulswicke must prove her innocence but
does anyone actually want to know the truth or is this just another round in
the games of power that are taking place?
Personally, I don’t think Paul could have picked a more
fascinating character than Margaret Beaufort Countess of Richmond she was widowed at the age of thirteen, a mere three months before the birth of Henry
VII, proved herself a master of political conspiracy once the moment was right
and in the end got her son the title to the throne of England. The things that she did to
both stay alive and stay influential… well, there’s certainly more than one
story here and worth taking a nosey.
Christopher Ulswicke also based on a real person, is our
detective and an interesting lead. Beaufort uses Christopher Urswicke as a spy
and decoy. He was loyal and employed by
Margaret to forward the schemes for securing the English throne for her son,
Henry of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII. As much as Christopher is an
interesting individual there’s very little information about him on the
internet. Throughout the book as his conspiracies progress, Paul does a great
job at keeping them deliciously convoluted while never losing the reader as to
who is playing who and at what.
I think this book leans slightly more to a historical take on
the period rather than a full-blown mystery novel as Paul takes a number of
real events and weaves a story around making it an interesting read and worth
the time. That’s isn’t to say Paul hasn’t don’t a marvellous job weaves the
murders into the conspiracy and political deception, I was completely gripped
by the tale.
Some readers might be put off by the pacing of the book. The
opening chapter does have a bit of an information dump but it has a lot of
useful information about the status of the numerous characters, but it soon
settles down into what is for the first half of the book, political intrigue.
Paul, in my opinion, is a master at bringing the sights and sounds, the
politics to life, there are plenty and intrigue and blood-curdling moments in
this book.
L x
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