RogerBW's Blog

Assassin's Masque, Sarah Zettel 03 June 2025

2016 historical adventure, last of its trilogy. Margaret Fitzroy's father has reappeared, but some of her enemies are now in high places, and everyone may have been lying to her.

In this book I found myself not particularly in sympathy with Margaret, who dithers over whom to believe rather more than I like to see in a protagonist. Yes, all right, that person told you a very plausible story, but there are plenty of other possible explanations for their piece of supporting evidence, and this is someone whom you already know to be an accomplished liar who wishes you ill…

I like what Zettel's doing, with historical fiction that hews as closely as possible to real history, while being firmly on the side of gritty realism rather than letting glamour take over. But as written the result can be something of a slog, as Margaret can achieve almost nothing by herself, and has to rely on others who have their own objectives which may not be compatible with hers.

Meanwhile there are Jacobite plots afoot, which is fair enough. But… what of the genuine tension between the household of the Prince of Wales (future George II) in London and his father (George I) in Hanover? People like Walpole show up here, but there's no mention of that particular conflict; any disagreement between King and Prince is reduced to a personal level.

All of this, which is of a piece with the earlier volumes, could be forgiven more readily if the conclusion were more satisfying, but I'm afraid I ended up feeling it was rather flat. Yes, all right, those particular bad people are dead, but (realistically!) some others are not, and even after a sudden miraculous recovery of fortune Margaret's position still depends entirely on the whim of someone who has already shown herself ready to throw Margaret to the wolves…

But even so I find myself unable to recommend against the book, or the series. The first volume gives you a pretty clear idea of what you'll get, and the others are more of the same sort of thing.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: Dangerous Deceptions | Series: Palace of Spies

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