Book description
'a tour de force work of art' - The Wall Street Journal, Best Books of the Year
Longlisted for the 2022 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award
It's Saturday evening, 9 March 1566, and Mary, Queen of Scots, is six months pregnant. She's hosting a supper party, secure in her…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Rizzio as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Growing up in Scotland, the brutal murder of Mary Queen of Scots’ Italian favourite (some say lover) Rizzio by her husband Lord Darnley is one of those stories I’ve known since childhood. Love, jealousy, revenge, royalty: it has it all!
In this slim novella, Denise Mina retells this famous story for the 21st century, bringing the characters to life and packing the pages with drama, emotion, and suspense.
From Flora's list on historical fiction books with a new take on a famous event.
I was given this as a present at the launch of my book on Mary. I took it home and devoured it the next day. It’s a short, punchy, and very immediate version of a single incident in Mary’s story: the dreadful murder of David Rizzio. Denise Mina does what I most admire in writers of historical fiction and somehow fills the story with suspense, although you know with your head how the story ends.
From Gill's list on Mary Queen of Scots for people who aren't into history.
If you love Rizzio...
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