Recommendations from our site
“I think Flora Carr is a smashing writer, with a particular talent for bringing characters to life and allowing them to really breathe on the page. From the opening lines, in which Mary stops to relieve herself on grass, we know we are being taken with a new intimacy into this woman’s life, whatever we think we already know about it – it’s very atmospheric. It’s also a brilliant idea – a Tudor prison break – so it’s tense, thrilling and compulsive from the start.” Read more...
Historical Novels Based on True Stories
Emily Howes, Novelist
“The Tower is a retelling of the 1567 imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots, in Lochleven Castle following the murder of her first husband and an uprising among her courtiers. The Tower focuses on Mary’s relationship with her ladies in waiting as they weather this bleak incarceration and the queen’s forced, humiliating abdication—all the while looking for an escape.” Read more...
Popular Fiction Highlights of Spring 2024
Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor
