This one slipped past me, but since I know a lot of you are readers of her books, I figured I should post links to her next book. This time the subject is Mary Queen of Scots during her captivity in England. It’s been out a while in the UK and will be out on the 16th in the US. Amazon links below (US on the left and UK hardcover in the center and paperback on the right).
I have such high hopes for this book!
Usually, no novel is purchased, or even ordered, unless it’s been handled first and at least the first few pages read. Here’s hoping Ms Gregory has another “The Other Boleyn Girl” hit on her hands, and not one in the ilk of her “Constant Princess”.
Sorry to say, but I was VERY disappointed in that one.
It may be like “The Constant Princess” in that the story takes place while Mary is in captivity with the Shrewsburys, which means there’s a lot of sitting and waiting and plotting and needlework. I tend to prefer my Mary Queen of Scots historical fiction with the Fair Devil of Scotland still at large. But I’ll definitely read Gregory’s book.
FYI, the London Times gave the book an unenthusiastic review a few weeks ago. Jenny Wormald, a respected historian and biographer of Mary Stuart, wrote it:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4492552.ece
I read the review you provided, Foose…and I cancelled the book! This is a novel which I will have to read a bit before forking over any money. Perhaps it’s something that would best be purchased as a used item, or put on request at the library.
Yes, it will eventually be read, as was “The Constant Princess”…albeit that book was skimmed.
What got me to cancel was the plot-line that Shrewsbury and Mary were romantically involved. Hey…I know it’s ‘hys’terical fiction, but give me a break!
I’m glad you found it helpful … I just hope Ms. Gregory doesn’t put a hit out on me for posting the review …!
Oh good. If its like ‘The other Boleyn girl’ then we can look forward to another badly written novel with absolutely zero historical accuracy.
Maybe its just me, (I know there is always room for a little poetic license), but if your’re going to write historical fiction, at least try and get the basic facts right.
You know, this book is not bad. It’s not as good as The Other Boleyn Girl (which, though I had some reservations about it, I generally felt the author’s obsession with incest, bad sex, and unsympathetic heroines had finally found its natural subject), but it ranks a little below The Boleyn Inheritance, which I thought the second-best of Gregory’s historical novels (the Catherine Howard narratives in that book made me laugh and laugh).
Like the latter book, it’s written in three voices; the chief problem is that the voice that gets the most page time, Bess of Hardwick’s husband George Talbot, is the dullest voice (Gregory could never write men). Bess is excellent and I would have liked her to have the lion’s share of the talking. Mary Queen of Scots is more equivocal; Gregory has set her up to be the film noir heroine of 16th-century England; like Kathie Moffat of Out of the Past or Brigid O’Shaughnessy of The Maltese Falcon, she can’t help being bad, but in her case she’s not bad, just royal, although it amounts to the same thing. The question, of course, is how big a chump is Talbot going to be? I don’t mind Gregory’s take that he was madly in love with his captive; a lot of people apparently were at the time, and I think it’s a reasonable assumption in the context of popular historical fiction.
It’s not great writing. The characters, particularly the secondary ones, are pretty thin (the brief introduction of the Earls of Essex and Huntingdon are like the arrival of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; Queen Elizabeth is a painted pantomime shrew; Cecil glooms and menaces); there’s a minimal effort to contrive a believable historical atmosphere (although I liked the part dealing with the 1569 revolt); and last part of the book is very rushed. But it’s definitely readable, and Bess charms, and if you like Tudor history you’ll probably enjoy it for what it’s worth — a good lazy Sunday afternoon read by the fire, or in the bathtub.
Hehe… funny you should note that it is a good “bathtub read”, since Weir’s “The Lady Elizabeth” is the one currently residing in my bathroom. 🙂