Wednesday 2 December 2020

BETRAYAL: Historical Stories by Judith Arnopp, Cryssa Bazos and more

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads


How I discovered this book: Twitter

In A Nutshell: A collection of historical long-short stories by various authors, all on the subject of betrayal.

This is a fine collection—it is rare to find an anthology by many authors without a weak moment here and there, but this is such.  The stories follow on through time, chronologically, starting with Death At Feet of Venus, set in Roman times, by Derek Birks, and ending with a modern day story featuring alternative history, The Idealist by Alison Morton. 

The stories you like best will depend on your preferences for writing style and the periods that interest you most; my favourites were House Arrest by Judith Arnopp, about Margaret Beaufort, who is one of my historical heroes—I highly recommend Ms Arnopp's series about her, incidentally—and Love to Hatred Turn'd by Annie Whitehead, set in the 10th century; Ms Whitehead has that knack of making you feel as though you are sitting within the king's great hall in the kingdom of Wessex, as you are reading.  I also very much liked All Those Tangled Webs by Anna Belfrage, which covers the time in 1330 just after Edward II had died, and Road to The Tower by Elizabeth St. John, about the lead up to the imprisonment of Princes Edward and Richard, who famously disappeared from the Tower of London.

I bow with respect to all involved.  Highly recommended. 


7 comments:

  1. Ah yo, another book for the TBR list. Thanks (?), Terry.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's the next book I'm reading, Terry, so this is good news indeed. I hope to start it tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, you'll LOVE it, Olga! I'll be interested to see which are your favourites.

      Delete
  3. Thanks for the wonderful review, Terry! So glad you enjoyed being BETRAYED (in the nicest possible way, of cours!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are most welcome, though it was hard to see Margaret Beaufort from Elysabeth's point of view... no, no, I need to hear that she's a heroine! (joke!)

      Delete