The King's Witch

I picked up Tracy Borman's novel The King's Witch (#783) because of its attractive cover art.  The cover blurb promised the first of a planned trilogy by Ms. Borman, a historian, set at the end of the Tudor era and the beginning of the Stuarts.  I thought it would be just my kind of book.

Turns out I was wrong.  The heroine, Lady Frances Gorges, is an herbalist serving the dying Queen Elizabeth by easing her pain with her salves and potions.  But her family has been marked by Lord Privy Seal Cecil for ruin.  Even before Elizabeth's body is cold, he has already taken the road north to meet the new monarch, James, first of the Stuarts.  James' passion for hunting out witches suits Cecil's agenda well as he seeks Lady Frances' death for witchcraft.

Although he does not succeed, Frances is forced to remain at court as a lady-in-waiting to the young Princess Elizabeth.  While she grows fond of her young charge, she is always aware of eyes watching, and plots being hatched as courtiers vie for favors and patronage.  Frances meets Thomas Wintour, a lawyer who acts for Queen Anne, but he has his own secrets to hide.  Of course she discovers them, and is embroiled in a failed attempt to kill the king, the infamous Guy Fawkes Gunpowder Plot.

Much of the plot was telegraphed well in advance.  When (Spoiler Alert!) Frances takes the doomed Thomas to her bed as he flees for his life, you just know that she will wind up pregnant and alone.  But of course, that will be the next volume in this series.  Also, from what I've read of Elizabethan history (and I've read quite a bit), William Cecil, Elizabeth's spy master, was loyal to her.  Here, he is quite the villain; you wonder how anyone, especially Elizabeth, could have ever trusted him.  That just didn't ring true to me.  Obviously, Ms. Borman has a different opinion, and history is her discipline.

Frankly, I won't be reading any further.  I found the tone of the novel relentlessly downbeat and depressing.  I think we all face enough misery in our own lives to deserve a little happiness when we escape to a fictional world.  I don't think you'll find it in this book.