Recommendations from our site
Denise Mina’s pint-sized Rizzio dramatises the bloody murder of Mary, Queen of Scots’ Italian secretary, David Rizzio, and the subsequent coup d’etat in Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, in March 1566. Rizzio is a short but perfectly formed little book that brilliantly evokes the tense and stifled atmosphere of the Queen’s private chambers as she, six months pregnant, considers her predicament: her hasty love marriage to the handsome, charismatic and reckless Lord Darnley is dead in the water; her lords are revolting; relations with her powerful, Protestant cousin Elizabeth I of England have soured. Now, during a private dinner party for friends, events come to a brutal and shocking climax.
At only just over 100 pages (or two hours, in the audio version), it’s perfect for a car journey or slow afternoon. After Rizzio, you might move on to Lucy Jago’s excellent recent novel A Net for Small Fishes, about a real-life scandal that rocked the court of Mary’s son, James VI (James I of England) who went on to unite the English and Scottish crowns.
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