Three Maids for a Crown

July 4, 2011
In her absorbing second novel, Chase (The Virgin Queen's Daughter) returns once more to the Tudors with ladies Jane, Katherine, and Mary Gray, three sisters who quickly learn that their rightful claim to the throne through their royal blood is as much a curse as a blessing. Jane, the eldest, is implicated in her father's plot to overthrow her cousin, Queen Mary I. Although the queen is reluctant to have her cousin killed, she eventually gives into the pressure, and Mary and Katherine watch their sister killed. Queen Mary appoints them ladies-in-waiting, and from her court they watch the schism between Protestants and Catholics widen, the future of England becoming more uncertain and the reign of the queen more precarious. The final years of Queen Mary's reign and the first of Queen Elizabeth'sâsome three decadesâare predictably recounted from the perspectives of all three Gray sisters, no easy task given their disparate personalities, but Chase largely succeeds. This is a suspenseful and engaging novel, offering a fine sense of the turmoil and uncertainty that plagued the royal houses of Europe in the mid-16th cen-tury.

July 15, 2011

Amid the turmoil of the final days of King Edward's reign, who will succeed to the throne? His Catholic half sister Mary, his Protestant half sister Elizabeth or perhaps someone else with a little Tudor blood running through her veins?

With her second foray into alternative historical romance (The Virgin Queen's Daughter, 2008), Chase explores another intriguing mystery: How did Lady Jane Grey and her two sisters react to the political machinations that imprisoned them? Chase sets the fates of Jane, Katherine and Mary Grey against a field of political and personal ambitions. The Duke and Duchess of Suffolk scheme to maneuver their daughters into politically advantageous positions in the hopes of drawing nearer to the throne. With conspirators Northumberland and Pembroke, they marry scholarly Jane to Guilford Dudley, Northumberland's son, positioning her as a direct threat to Queen Mary. They marry beautiful Katherine to Henry Herbert, Pembroke's son. They set Mary, with her twisted spine and unsightly face, as decoy, unwittingly reassuring Mary of the Suffolk family's love despite their treachery. Edward soon dies, Jane is set up as queen for nine days, and Mary escapes the conspirators' clutches to snare the throne for herself. Thus, the three wagered maids begin to tumble to ruin. The political machinations could easily overwhelm the novel, but Chase keeps the narrative reins firmly in the Grey sisters' hands. She allows the Grey sisters to tell the story using a kind of snapshot technique, letting each woman tell different parts of it. Jane tells the harrowing details of being forced to wed a man she does not love, to wear a crown she does not want, and to accept beheading for the treason she did not intend. In turn, Kat tells the tale of betrayal, as she is married and set aside, and trust, as she secretly marries for love. Mary tells the tale of the forgotten sister who, too, finds love by putting aside social expectations. 

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July 1, 2011
The political and religious turmoil of Reformation England and the perennially fascinating story of Lady Jane Grey's nine-day reign as England's queen come vibrantly to life in this fictional but deftly researched chronicle of Jane and her two lesser-known, younger sisters, Katherine and Mary. With a firmer claim to the throne than the two daughters (Mary and Elizabeth) Henry VIII denounced as illegitimate, the Grey girls are pitched into the turbulent maze of Tudor politics by their Macbeth-like parents, whose scheming ends in countrywide rebellion, the execution of studious, pious Jane, and the annulment of Katherine's marriage. Afterwards, gentle, loving Kat and suspicious, deformed Mary are jostled through the courts of Bloody Mary and Elizabeth I. On the way, they encounter true love, petty betrayal, and, at last, maturity and strength more potent than the power their abusers wield. Though sometimes weighed down by clunky historical exposition, Chase's prose is engaging, and her rich, detailed portraits of Renaissance women, particularly those of a kindly but haunted Mary I and a vicious, conceited Elizabeth, are unforgettable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)