Milady

March 18, 2019
Sullivan (Girl About Town) cleverly reveals the untold story behind the Three Musketeers’ most notorious foe, the cunning Milady de Winter, in a novel best suited to those already familiar with the work of Alexandre Dumas. Milady starts her life as Clarice, the sheltered daughter of a Frenchwoman and a lecherous English baron in the early 17th century. She gradually learns the delicate arts of healing, murder, and concealment. A disturbing encounter with her long-absent father thrusts Clarice into the sticky web of deceit that is the court of King James I of England, leading her into the crosshairs of manipulative lovers and ardent clerics who will shape the remaining years of her life. This companion story is most effective when it blazes its own narrative path, sketching out the period before a world-weary Milady encounters D’Artagnan and his beloved Musketeers at the scene of a duel. It is less effective, however, where Sullivan’s storytelling meets that of Dumas’s. Sullivan weaves a tale of suffering, survival, and intrigue that will entertain ardent Three Musketeers enthusiasts, but it’s likely to leave casual fans or newcomers grasping for context.

Starred review from July 1, 2019

Middle grade and YA novelist Sullivan's adult debut is a rousing tale of spies, love, sex, and death. It is a delight, right from the salacious opening in a whorehouse in 1628 France. Milady de Winter of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers tells her own story, claiming her version to be more fascinating and accurate than that of the far from heroic musketeers. She recounts her journey from naive Yorkshire lass Clarice, daughter of Lord Paget, to Milady, a woman of action--independent, resourceful, and quite capable of rescuing herself. Educated in the healing and poisonous properties of herbs by her mother and in the arts of courtly and romantic intrigue by Lady Mary Villiers, Clarice finds her greatest power lies in being underestimated, taken for a mere helpless female. After she's betrayed by her beloved at the court of King James I, Clarice travels to France, where her adventure-strewn path ultimately leads to her life as an agent for Cardinal Richelieu. VERDICT This is truly entertaining historical fiction, an imaginative retelling of a classic from a new viewpoint. Readers will identify with Milady's struggle to find her place in the world, to find happiness and love. Fanciers of adventurous historical fiction will love her story.--Barbara Clark-Greene, Westerly, RI

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2019
Sullivan's first adult novel reimagines the story of Milady de Winter, the infamous villainess of The Three Musketeers. Readers follow Milady?Clarice, rather?from the beginning in 1612 at her childhood home in Yorkshire and thereafter as she joins her ambitious father at the English court, where she learns the skills of espionage and seduction as she works to help the son of a family ally obtain royal favor. Clarice, eventually betrayed by her father and lover, is imprisoned in a brutal French convent, from which she manages to escape, and she subsequently marries an aristocrat under a false name. Occasional chapters set in 1628 offer Milady's version of her interactions with D'Artagnan and the musketeers. Sullivan provides enough context to ensure that even readers unfamiliar with Dumas' classic won't be too lost, and though these chapters are initially less interesting than the primary story, the two time lines eventually come together in completely satisfying fashion. The clever ending is certain to delight both Dumas fans and newcomers who enjoy historical fiction featuring smart, adventurous, determined women.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)