I’ve had a most enjoyable and interesting evening, I went to a book launch! I’ve mentioned my writing friend G.J.Williams who writes gripping and very interesting Tudor mysteries.
G.J. Williams is the author of the Tudor Rose Murder Mystery series – historical murder mysteries with a tiny supernatural twist. Her acclaimed books are set in Tudor England, beginning in the reign of Mary Tudor, also known as Bloody Mary, and then moving to the reign of Elizabeth 1st. Each novel takes real events and people of Tudor England and the Royal Courts, and puts a plot and bodies in the middle. Her detective is Doctor John Dee, a real Tudor figure, who was an astronomer, philosopher, medic, adviser, and spy for Elizabeth 1st. His apprentice is a woman called Margaretta Morgan, born with the strange gift of hearing and feeling what is not said. As a woman in Tudor times, she can move among others, ignored, as she picks up evidence to feed back to her master. As they work together to solve the crime, both must face the mystery but also fight their own battles.
The venue of tonight’s launch was The Boathouse in our little seaside village of Uphill. It’s now a café-restaurant, but originally it was a ships’ chandlers, and inside there are replica boats, fishing nets, and some genuine maritime memorabilia. The Boathouse serves delicious snacks, meals, drinks, and best of all, in my opinion, home-made gelato. No gelato tonight, wine, soft drinks and coffee as we listened to details of the background to the story set in Tudor England, and listened to an excerpt from the new book, “The Assassin’s Mark“. I was completely intrigued, and look forward to starting to read it tonight! The action takes place in 1570, shortly after the Northern Rebellion has been successfully crushed. A body is found, horribly murdered, and what evidence there is, points to the involvement of the Knights Templar.
Although I studied history right up to taking a degree in history and English, no syllabus i had ever covered the times of the Tudors and their successors the Stuarts. I know a lot about the Normans and Anjevins, and the Crusades, quite a lot about the industrial revolution and The Great Reform Act, and a great deal about the first world war. From that list you can see there are yawning gaps in my historical education, which I have tried to make up by reading, and by listening to and watching programmes about the missing eras. As part of that, reading G.J. Williams’ books adds detail to the bald facts I’ve learned.
Here is a link to the latest book in the series: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Assassins-Mark-Tudor-Rose-Murders/dp/1917163045
I hope you enjoy it, and if you haven’t read the previous books in the series, I recommend that you do!
Lois Elsden 