Excellent yet Tedious

I came into this book blind, never having heard of the author or narrator before, but the brief resume caught my imagination. The characters and characterisation are well introduced and deveoped and the plot was superb - it kept even me, a seasoned reader of historical fiction in all its subgenres, guessing right until the denoument, which was itself perfectly timed and unwrapped in a masterly way. It weaves real characters with fictional ones, and it was refreshing to see Francis Walsingham & William Cecil from different angles to the usual stereotypes of Elizabeth I's spymaster and right-hand man we usually see in historical fiction of the period.

I do have one criticism, however; whilst the cat and mouse game between the main protagonist and his nemesis was intrinsic to the plot, there was just too much of it. Scenes that could've been cut far shorter without losing anything of the plot were dragged out and there were just too many stalk-fight-flight encounters, some of which were unnecessary. Towards the end, I found myself fast-forwarding (the audible equivalent of page flicking) past such parts in order to get to the next part of real plot development.

I can fully recommend this book to all afficionadi of historical thrillers, but with the caveat that it does get tedious in parts. It is extremely well written and the narration couldn't have been better. Others may well disagree, but I envisage it will only be those who love long, drawn-out fights.

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7 people found this helpful

Not quite what I had hoped for

I love c j sansoms books and hoped that this might be similar. It was only for the period it was set in, I found it difficult to believe in the story. But quite enjoyed it.

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1 person found this helpful

Great book

I loved this book and the second one Roots of Betrayal, which seems to have disapeared from audible . i am hoping they will reinstate it and the third book in the trilogy which is already out in paperback. well worth listening to. please audible can we have all 3

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1 person found this helpful

well thought. out story.

this story was well planned & interesting.
it's twist & turns kept you gripped to the end.

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1 person found this helpful

Very satisfying!

Loved this book, if you like quality historical fiction with a sprinkling of whodunit, you could do much worse than this. This book is how it should be imo. The narrator is excellent too, dramatising without over-egging it. I've been waiting (im)patiently for the next book, in what I hope will become a series (Roots of Betrayal), to be available on Audible and saw today it has been listed. That's what this month's credit will be going on!

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1 person found this helpful

Worthy but wordy

This book is too long and wordy. It gives a good account of the threats to Elizabeth 1st and the paranoia of her court officials but I found the story of the chronicle hard to believe and therefore to care about

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1 person found this helpful

Would recommend

Great characters and representation of historical time period. A great fictional way to connect with the society of the past and the people in it

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