History Corner: Book Review and Giveaway: Prophecy by S. J. Parris

** this giveaway is closed **

Up today is an English mystery set in the time of Queen Elizabeth and the turmoil among her people, and the attempts to take her off the throne. If you love English/Tudor history, you're gonna love this book!

Synopsis: S. J. Parris returns with the next Giordano Bruno mystery, set inside Queen Elizabeth’s palace and steeped in period atmospherics and the strange workings of the occult.

It is the year of the Great Conjunction, when the two most powerful planets, Jupiter and Saturn, align—an astrological phenomenon that occurs once every thousand years and heralds the death of one age and the dawn of another. The streets of London are abuzz with predictions of horrific events to come, possibly even the death of Queen Elizabeth.

When several of the queen’s maids of honor are found dead, rumors of black magic abound. Elizabeth calls upon her personal astrologer, John Dee, and Giordano Bruno to solve the crimes. While Dee turns to a mysterious medium claiming knowledge of the murders, Bruno fears that something far more sinister is at work. But even as the climate of fear at the palace intensifies, the queen refuses to believe that the killer could be someone within her own court.

Bruno must play a dangerous game: can he allow the plot to progress far enough to give the queen the proof she needs without putting her, England, or his own life in danger?

You can read an except of Chapter 1, on the Random House website (click 'About the book', then 'Excerpt' tab, under it).

About the Author: S. J. Parris is the pen name of Stephanie Merritt,who began reviewing books for national newspapers while she was reading English literature at Queens' College, Cambridge. After graduating, she went on to become Deputy Literary Editor of The Observer in 1999. She continues to work as a feature writer and critic for the Guardian and the Observer. She lives in the south of England with her son.

Review: This is one of those books where reading the first in the series is definitely helpful, but not necessary! I thought it would take me a while to get thru the almost 400 pages, but once I got about 4 chapters in, the story just flew! It was probably helpful that I read the I Prefer Paris post about an Afternoon in Selis, which showed pictures of the medieval village south of Paris.The pictures really helped set the 'stage' so to speak in my mind and seemed to really make the story go quicker. Odd how that can happen!

The characters in the book would give the characters from any episode of Law and Order a run for their money! Evil, deception, politics, romance, family problems- all here in spades! This is an interesting look at the backstage dealings of the monarchy and embassies!

This is a great read, even if you're not a history buff, and I'm very happy to be able to offer TWO copies to my wonderful readers!

Giveaway:

TWO Winners will each receive their OWN copy of Prophecy!

Entries:

Make sure I have an email address, with your comment, so I can contact you, if you win!
If I don't have a way to contact you, you will forfeit your win!

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(publisher's rules)

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Contest will end on July 13th, at midnight. Winner will be picked by Random Number (random.org) on July 14th, and emailed. As soon as winners info is received, I will email their info to Random House, who will mail the winners their books!

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book for review purposes on this blog, free of charge, from Random House Publishing Company .No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it.