Rating: 4 out of 5

Another great story full of action. And another that I kept thinking about and wanted to read at every opportunity. Slightly different to the first two as it has no historical piece and is all described by research and findings. Nicely set up for the next book as well.

Highlighted passaages:

‘Anne succeeded William III, her brother-in-law, in 1702 and reigned until 1714, when the Hanovers came to the throne. Since the Act of Union between England and Scotland was passed during Anne’s reign, she became the first monarch of Great Britain and the last queen of England.

‘It began in 1688 with the Glorious Revolution, when Anne’s father, James II, fled England for France and thus abdicated the throne. The situation was later aggravated by the 1701 Act of Settlement, which was passed during William III’s reign, just before he died and Anne came to the throne. She and her sister Mary, who was William III’s wife—although daughters of James II, who was a devout Catholic—were equally devout converts to the Church of England. The Act stipulated that only those of the Church of England faith were eligible for succession to the throne.’

The Windsor ancestry—or I should say the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha ancestry, as it was before it was changed to something that sounded more British—still runs all the way back to Alfred the Great.’

he liked the way they smelled when the rain first arrived and mixed with the dust. It reminded him of old things, like antique books and boxes of old photographs that hadn’t been opened in a while.

Originally posted to my Goodreads account