I received a copy of this book in exchange for a frank and honest review. I received no pay or other compensation.
There’s an old saying that “Bedfellows makes strange politics.” I’m sure you’ve heard it.
No?
Well, it’s an age-old tale. In the pursuit of love, in the pursuit of lost love, in the pursuit of forbidden love, alliances must be formed or even broken. It is true now, and it has been true in history. Lies are told, lives are exchanged, and nations rise and fall because of the mysteries of human affection, desire, repulsion, calculation, and deceit.
In the years of Good Queen Bess (Elizabeth I), there were plots afoot continuously to bring down a Protestant heretic and re-establish the throne of Britain as the rightful place of a Catholic. Religion is far stronger than politics, and tho’ what the two sides believed about love, truth, morality, goodness, and obedience held no significant difference, having the same dull platitudes of peace and love and harmony, when it was the wrong party in power, it was an affront to the god of your own choosing and an impetus to destroy the seat of the blasphemer. For good or bad, when Protestant Elizabeth reigned Catholics were disfavored. And rebellion seethed through England, leading to persecution that had flipped before when Catholics persecuted Protestants.
What could a monarch do in the face of rebellion, and when threatened by war and conquest? Only through divine intervention was England spared the invasion of the Spanish fleet. There must be stronger alliances made, nations united with nation against nations that sought to conquer. And so there arose the idea of an alliance between England and Russia.
But how can a Protestant Queen find an alliance with the mad Orthodox Tsar Ivan, called “the Terrible”? What would he find most attractive? The British crown was not for sale, and the Queen herself would not deign to ally her self. What was needed was an intermediary—perhaps a beautiful young woman who could serve as the next in the long line of temporary wives for the Tsar. Such were the days of yore, where women were traded like chips in a poker game, but those were the times. So the Queen sent an emissary with a secret, to be revealed only to the Tsar himself, a way to forge a bond between the two nations who could then form an Entente Horrible to encircle the nations that were encircling the Sceptered Isle.
Recently widowed Catholic Julian Blunt is tasked with the journey to carry that private message from the Protestant queen of a Protestant nation, hidden both in the words he knew and the precious object he protected—a locket with a revelatory painting, to be revealed only in the presence of the Mad Tsar himself. Above all, Blunt and Elizabeth were English, and would serve the people faithfully no matter their religious discord. But what would happen to the religious affairs of England should a Protestant-Orthodox union come into being? So enters the Angel of the Pope who will stop at nothing to ferret out the truth, who carries with him untold forces of destruction, all bent towards the unraveling of any union between the Bear and the Lion.
And who carries the locket? It comes down to three people who join in the mysterious journey—a lady, a servant, and a foppish young man who is nothing but trouble and alienation. Calcross, he is called, and he spends his time provoking all around him, desperate to prove that he is flighty but still mighty—and yet he, too, is a man with a secret.
The journey is long and arduous over war-torn Europe from the fields of The Netherlands to the frozen marshes of Poland and Russia. Secrets are revealed, friendships are made and lost, terrible sacrifices are made, and by the thinnest of thinnest hopes Blunt finally makes it to the Promised Land. And then the locket is opened to reveal—
Well, I’ll leave that to you to find out. The journey itself is fascinating, a tour of 1580s Europe with its wars and religious squabbling, the fights over the dominance of one man by another, the lust for power of one nation over another. Between every nook, crack, and cranny, Blunt and his team make a way forward, overcoming impossible odds again and again until at last Blunt achieves the goal he never thought he would grasp again: love that nearly surpasses the happiness of memory. There are improbably obstacles and even more improbable achievements, and yet it is a story that is as old as stories themselves: love will change the world, and love can come from the most unlikely sources, often right under your eyes but not seen until catastrophe, crisis, or consequence reveals the truth.
Publisher: Fireship Press (April 30, 2020)
Category: Action/Adventure, Historical Romance, and Historical Thriller
ISBN: 978-1611792775 (print)
ASIN: B085RNFHZ2 (Kindle)
I’m so glad you enjoyed ‘The Tsar’s Locket’! It was quite the journey!
Thank you so much for your kinds words in your review of The Tsar’s Locket. I’m glad you enjoyed it
You had me believing that it might have happened just like that! And I thoroughly enjoyed the trip through Europe as the two made their way to the court of the Tsar.