Book of the Month: April

I loved this novel so much that I believe it will be one of my top ten books of the year. This historical fiction novel tells the story of the real life nun Elizabeth Barton who lived in the 1500s during the reign of Henry VIII. She claimed to have seen visions of purgatory and hell. Henry demanded to see her twice. Elizabeth was brought to him and boldly warned him of God's wrath if he married Anne Boleyn.

Her story is told in a dual timeline and the setting is primarily located in an English country manor, where an ambitious professor, Alison Sage, offers a paper on her discovery of the long-lost manuscript of Barton. The manuscript had written accounts of her visions. Sage was a participant in a consortium of historians at the manor. Elizabeth’s setting was St. Sepulchre Priory where Elizabeth lived with other nuns unless she was traveling to speak to bishops, archbishops and Cardinals. 

Toward the end there was a murder of one of the scholars at the Consortium and Alison was able to determine the identity of the culprit. That part was interesting but I wish that it occurred earlier in the plot.

The fact that there are many true events in the story does not take away from the intriguing plot. Both timelines were intense and suspenseful. I LOVE this book.