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A review by hmalagisi
The Twilight Queen by Jeri Westerson
3.0
Greenwich Palace is a Tudor palace full of glamour, intrigue, and murder. A musician has been found murdered in the chambers of the current wife of King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn. Only one person can solve this crime while protecting the royal family. No, he is not a knight or a lawyer, but a fool. No, an actual fool or jester of the court of Henry VIII, Will Somers. A man who is loyal to his king Henry VIII, but can he save his second wife from the murderer lurking in the shadows? Jeri Westerson’s Will Somers follows the clues to uncover the truth to protect those who are the most important to him in book two of A King’s Fool Mystery series, “The Twilight Queen.”
I would like to thank Severn House and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this novel. I have not read any of Jeri Westerson’s previous novels, including the first book of the A King’s Fool Mystery series, so I was going into this one completely blind. What caught my eye about this book was the concept that Will Somers, a character who is not featured much in Tudor novels, acts as an armchair detective trying to protect Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
This mystery takes place in April 1536, when Anne Boleyn is nervous that her husband has lost interest in her and has chosen his next bride. To make matters worse, she comes back from a night of revelry to find a dead body in her chambers. What can a queen do but call on a man who recently solved a murder mystery, Will Somers, her husband’s fool.
Will Somers is a complex character. He tries to balance keeping his monarch entertained while speaking his mind about those closest to the king, especially Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn. Will is married to Marion Greene, the illegitimate daughter of the Yeoman of the Records, Lord Robert Heyward, whom he loves, but Somers has his affairs with men at court, like his lover in this book, Nicholas Pachett.
While I did enjoy the characters of Will, Marion, and Nicholas, I felt that the whole love triangle situation distracted me from the actual mystery. I feel like you can do a love story and a mystery together in the same novel, but in this instance, it felt a bit too much. There were a lot of good ideas, but it felt a bit rushed in a 250-page novel. Some elements made it feel a bit too modern than Tudor for my taste. Overall, I think some elements could be better, but I did feel attached to the main characters of Will, Marion, and Nicholas.
I think as my first dive into Westerson’s Tudor world, it was a bit rushed with compelling characters, but I do want to go back and read the first book in this series as well as see what kind of mystery Westerson will come up with next for Somers to solve. I think if you want an unconventional Tudor mystery that has an unlikely sleuth as the protagonist, you should check out “The Twilight Queen” and A King’s Fool mystery series by Jeri Westerson.
I would like to thank Severn House and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this novel. I have not read any of Jeri Westerson’s previous novels, including the first book of the A King’s Fool Mystery series, so I was going into this one completely blind. What caught my eye about this book was the concept that Will Somers, a character who is not featured much in Tudor novels, acts as an armchair detective trying to protect Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
This mystery takes place in April 1536, when Anne Boleyn is nervous that her husband has lost interest in her and has chosen his next bride. To make matters worse, she comes back from a night of revelry to find a dead body in her chambers. What can a queen do but call on a man who recently solved a murder mystery, Will Somers, her husband’s fool.
Will Somers is a complex character. He tries to balance keeping his monarch entertained while speaking his mind about those closest to the king, especially Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn. Will is married to Marion Greene, the illegitimate daughter of the Yeoman of the Records, Lord Robert Heyward, whom he loves, but Somers has his affairs with men at court, like his lover in this book, Nicholas Pachett.
While I did enjoy the characters of Will, Marion, and Nicholas, I felt that the whole love triangle situation distracted me from the actual mystery. I feel like you can do a love story and a mystery together in the same novel, but in this instance, it felt a bit too much. There were a lot of good ideas, but it felt a bit rushed in a 250-page novel. Some elements made it feel a bit too modern than Tudor for my taste. Overall, I think some elements could be better, but I did feel attached to the main characters of Will, Marion, and Nicholas.
I think as my first dive into Westerson’s Tudor world, it was a bit rushed with compelling characters, but I do want to go back and read the first book in this series as well as see what kind of mystery Westerson will come up with next for Somers to solve. I think if you want an unconventional Tudor mystery that has an unlikely sleuth as the protagonist, you should check out “The Twilight Queen” and A King’s Fool mystery series by Jeri Westerson.