Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Weir (the Six Tudor Queens series) delivers an insightful tale of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's rise to power, his friendship with Henry VIII, and the ways in which both men's lives are complicated by their love affairs. Wolsey, the son of a butcher, enters the priesthood after attending Oxford. In 1509, he's tapped to become a member of the Tudor Court's Privy Council under Henry, all while maintaining a secret affair with Joan, the sister of a fellow priest. Wolsey quickly establishes himself as Henry's trusted adviser, eventually earning the title of lord chancellor. While reveling in the king's trust and representing him in dealings with the French monarch, Wolsey becomes the target of nobles who resent his influence over Henry. The tension boils over after the king becomes enamored of Anne Boleyn and Wolsey tries and fails to obtain an annulment of Henry's marriage to Katherine of Aragon, leading to charges of treason against Wolsey. The prose can be clumsy (Wolsey is seen "resolutely quelling his teeming thoughts"), but Weir capably dramatizes the cleric's desperate quest to remain in the king's favor, even as he yearns for a "parallel life" in which he could live openly with Joan. It's an immersive tale of Tudor intrigue. (May)
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