Review ~ Sisters of Treason by Elizabeth Fremantle

Penguin
29th January 2015

** Out  January 29th in Paperback and eBook**

In Sisters of Treason, the author weaves together historical fact and fiction and brings to life the story of the enigmatic Grey sisters, who together with their more tragic sister, Jane, were forced to live within the ominous shadow of the Tudor crown, and who were destined to leave their own mark on Tudor history. 

In the aftermath of the execution of Lady Jane Grey, Mary Tudor’s court is a scheming hive of plot, counter-plot and malice, and for the Grey sisters keeping close to the Queen is not a comfortable arrangement. However, keeping your enemies close is a theme which will reverberate throughout the reigns of both Tudor queens.

Told in the combined voices of sisters, Katherine and Mary Grey, and also of Levina Teerlinc who is a court painter, we are given a unique insight into just what life was like at the centre of Tudor politics, and of how both Katherine and Mary were always kept within a hair’s breadth of the Tudor crown. Both sisters lived a tragic life which is sensitively and emotionally explored in this novel which covers both the reigns of ‘Bloody Mary’, and her more charismatic, but no less terrifying sister, Elizabeth.

There is no doubt that this new voice in historical fiction really knows how to bring the royal court alive in a believable and realistic way. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, Sisters of Treason, abounds with danger and political skulduggery. It offers a unique insight into a royal court where being a potential Tudor heir and female was fraught with danger, and which, ultimately would have no happy ending for any of the trio of Grey sisters.

I am completely captivated by the strength of historical detail in Sisters of Treason. The sheer readability of this novel takes you back in time and leaves you feeling that you are walking the same cramped corridors of power, to a place where the whisper of candle smoke reminds you that deadly and uncompromising danger is always just a heartbeat away.

I am already eagerly awaiting Elizabeth Fremantle’s next historical novel 

 Watch the Lady is due to be published in June 2015.

About the Author

Elizabeth Fremantle holds a first in English and an MA in creative Writing from Birkbeck. As a Fashion Editor she has contributed to various publications including Vogue, Elle,Vanity Fair and the Erotic Review. Sisters of Treason is her second book following on from Queen’s Gambit(2013).

**Queen’s Gambit has been selected as a World Book Night 2015 title**

My thanks to Francesca Russell at Penguin UK for my copy of this book.

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