THE BOYS TALE.

THE BOY'S TALE by MARGARET FRAZER.

Who would ever want to harm two young boys, aged five and six? When the boys are half brothers to Henry VI, King of England, the list is long and distinguished. A lady in their mother's household flees with the boys to St. Frideswide's and asks Dame Frevisse to offer them a haven. Unable to refuse children, she takes them in and conceals them.

But as attempts are made on the boys' lives inside St. Frideswide's walls, Dame Frevisse realizes that from the ambitious and the wicked there is no sanctuary.....

... From the inner front cover.

FIRST SENTENCE: The warm summer's afternoon was worn well away.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: 'Not easy at all. Nor simple as it probably ought to be. But then nothing is so simple as it ought to be. Not love or hate or fear or even hope.'

The fifth book in a series of seventeen (click HERE for the complete list), perhaps it all would have made a bit more sense if I had read from book one onwards - but I suspect not.

I love my historical novels and have read many based during this period. What a let down The Boy's Tale proved to be - actually being more about Dame Frevisse then the actual boys who, when all is said and done, played a fairly minor role.

Not a book I enjoyed in any shape or form. Boring is not a word I bandy about readily but, in this instance, I'm afraid it just about sums up the novel.

'History fans will relish every minute' claims Publishers Weekly. 'A good mystery .... excellently drawn' states author Anne Perry. If only I had found the book to be either of these things.

Disappointing with a weak plot and lame, one dimensional characters, it also felt a little strange that so many American spellings were used in a novel set in England in the time of England's King Henry VI. If you want to read a really good novel set at this time, may I suggest you try Philippa Gregory's THE WHITE QUEEN for a far superior read. (Click HERE for my review.)