Anna Nagel

A Feminine Crime

Set in the decadent court of King James I, A feminine Crime tells the story of Frances Howard famously convicted of murdering the king’s server...

 

 

 

A Feminine Crime

Synopsis

 

In 1606, at the age of thirteen, Frances Howard marries the Earl of Essex, a youth she barely knows. When Essex proves a dull curmudgeon, unable to consummate their union, Frances embroils herself in the decadent royal court of King James where she becomes a feted beauty, admired by all including the young Prince of Wales. But the royal court is a hotbed of vanity and intrigue, where courtiers constantly vie for royal favour and it is not long before Northampton, the powerful head of the Howard family recruits her in his scheme to steal the royal favourite, Viscount Rochester from under the noses of his political opponents. In doing so, Frances unwittingly earns the enmity of Rochester’s best friend and mentor, Sir Thomas Overbury.

When she falls in love with Rochester, she determines to marry him, but in an age where divorce is unheard of, she has little hope of setting her husband Essex aside. Unsupported by her family, Frances turns to her friend Anne Turner for help and is drawn into the superstitious underbelly of Stuart London, where necromancers, cunning women and disreputable apothecaries offer dubious and dangerous solutions.

With Rochester constantly at the beck and call of the king and Overbury determined to thwart her at every step, Frances struggles to see her ambitions fulfilled. Eventually she is forced to extreme measures to hold on to her lover, measures that culminate in murder.......

A Feminine Crime - out soon