Friday, January 26, 2007

Heads, You Lose

Sarah has posted this lovely cover of a reissue of Jean Plaidy's Murder Most Royal, about Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. As Sarah points out, the cover is quite apt.

I read this book early last year and enjoyed it thoroughly. Here's a mini-review from my other blog (bear in mind that when I wrote it, I hadn't read as much Plaidy as I have now):

I was very impressed by Murder Most Royal, which from its original copyright date of 1949 must have been one of Plaidy's earliest novels. In many of Plaidy's novels, particularly the later ones, I get the sense that she's writing straight from notes or reference materials, with very little time spent on developing character and with dialogue that is little more than exposition. This novel, by contrast, develops character at a leisurely pace and has characters who speak to each other instead of to the reader. I also liked the way Plaidy interspersed episodes from Anne Boleyn's life with those of Catharine Howard's life.

2 comments:

Daphne said...

I'm looking forward to reading this one at some point. I think you hit on the problem I have had with some of her books. The Norman Trilogy in particular read like she was just copying her notes and there was not much character development or dialogue that served any purpose other than to explain the historical event.

Susan Higginbotham said...

Have't read the Norman trilogy. Sounds like I can wait on doing so!