The Tudor Secret ~ C.W. Gortner

If anyone were to ask me if I felt there ever was a period, prior to the Cold War that was rife with espionage, I would immediately respond with: The Tudors, especially around the time of Henry VIII and his offspring. This isn't to suggest other periods or families in and out of England weren't affected by secret passageways meetings, just that it seems there wasn't a day with this lot that didn't involve some sort of intrigue. There was plenty of reasons for it: shifts in religion, including the head of the church; shifts in hereditary rights; siblings and relational rivalries; not to mention the host of problems attached to Regency Councils - men hungry for power that isn't 'divinely' theirs to control. Perfect conditions for intrigue to germinate and fester in a plague of deceit and intelligencing.



One of the Dudley family's stable hands is selected to become their oldest son's squire at court, as the head of the family, John Dudley: Duke of Northumberland, controls the youthful King's Regency Council. Upon arriving at court, squire Brendan Prescott is immediately embroiled in the complicated and serpentine lives of Henry VIII's children as the young King lay dying.

What also usually goes hand-in-hand with Tudor stories are heady romances, however, Gortner deftly ensures that the reader gets a spy story first, with a little romance on the side. Prescott is no James Bond and the wooing protocols of the time don't allow for the story to divert too broadly. I was also quite pleased about how the story unravels and the onion like series of plots that Prescott has to work through.

For those familiar with this era, there are likely to be predictable moments, but along with those of us less knowledgeable about this group of young royals and their entourages being guided by the Old Guard, there are some pleasant and sometimes quite shocking surprises.

My one small criticism, though it will hardly prevent me from reading the next installment, is the use of the term medieval. I recall reading it twice and thinking it is completely out of place as the word itself was coined in the 19th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries the period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance would have been called the Middle Age, but not medieval. I realise I come off as a bit of a pedantic, but truth is, when I'm trying to visualise the buildings that Prescott is describing, I don't know if I'm meant to think of the Middle Age that he could referring to, or architecture that we would identify as medieval today, which would have been modern for the squire. Because I couldn't quite work that out, it was a hard punch that took me momentarily out of the story. It doesn't affect the overall novel, but perhaps something the author might consider clarifying in future installments.

Review was originally located on the now defunct Paternoster Row Legacy blog.