Innocent Traitor

Alison Weir writes a splendid historical fiction with this story of Lady Jane Grey, who becomes the XX of Henry VIII's eight wives. Multiple talented narrators are well chosen for voices and viewpoints that collaborate to tell the story. Davina Porter's cold tones portray Jane's shrewish mother, Frances Brandon, who can't forgive her daughter for being born female. The regal-accented Gerald Doyle portrays self-interested John Dudley, who uses Jane as a political pawn, and Bianca Amato plays Queen Mary, who responds coldly to this political threat but melts later in compassion. In contrast are Jenny Sterlin's kindly nurse, Mrs. Ellen, and Stina Nielsen, who shows us Jane's development from dutiful child to contemplative girl at court and finally the 16-year-old young woman who faces execution with grace. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

October 2, 2006
Popular biographer Weir (Eleanor of Aquitaine
, etc.) makes her historical fiction debut with this coming-of-age novel set in the time of Henry VIII. Weir's heroine is Lady Jane Grey (1537–1554), whose ascension to the English throne was briefly and unluckily promoted by opponents of Henry's Catholic heir, Mary. As Weir tells it, Jane's parents, the Marquess and Marchioness of Dorset, groom her from infancy to be the perfect consort for Henry's son, Prince Edward, entrusting their daughter to a nurse's care while they attend to affairs at court. Jane relishes lessons in music, theology, philosophy and literature, but struggles to master courtly manners as her mother demands. Not even the beheadings of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard deter parental ambition. When Edward dies, Lord and Lady Dorset maneuver the throne for their 16-year-old daughter, risking her life as well as increased violence between Protestants and Catholics. Using multiple narrators, Weir tries to weave a conspiratorial web with Jane caught at the center, but the ever-changing perspectives prove unwieldy: Jane speaking as a four-year-old with a modern historian's vocabulary, for example, just doesn't ring true. But Weir proves herself deft as ever describing Tudor food, manners, clothing, pastimes (including hunting and jousting) and marital politics.

Starred review from September 1, 2007
Historian Weir has written ten biographies about the British monarchy. In her first novel, she tells the tragic story of Lady Jane Grey, who was the great-niece of Henry VIII and who reigned for nine days in 1553. Jane's parents, the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk, were ruthless in their political ambitions, and the author portrays them as abusive toward the precocious, intelligent, and pious Jane. Jane's happiest days were spent in the household of the Dowager Queen Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth wife. Henry's son and heir, Edward VI, was a sickly nine-year-old when he was crowned upon Henry's death. Edward's sisters Mary (a devout Catholic) and Elizabeth (whose alliance was uncertain) were declared illegitimate. Jane, the avowed Protestant, was declared the next in line and at age 15 accepted the crown. Within days, the balance of power tilted to the Catholics, and Jane was dethroned and imprisoned by the newly crowned Queen Mary; she was beheaded in February 1554. Weir keeps a complicated story untangled with the deft use of multiple first-person points of view. The recording enhances the technique by using varied clear-voiced narrators. Highly recommended for fiction collections.-Nann Blaine Hilyard, Zion-Benton P.L., IL

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