Review: Had a notion that I was going to hate it...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 28, 2014
What to say? Not my preferred genre at all, but having read and greatly enjoyed both ‘Dream On’ and ‘Full Circle’ by the prolific Ms Tyler, I decided to give ‘Kings and Queens’ a go, not least because I have an interest in English history and was fascinated by the idea of a contemporary novel based upon Henry VIII and his multiple wives.I had a notion that I was going to hate it.I’ve read fiction that sticks to the narrative of past events in a current setting faithfully and usually found them either wanting in veracity or vaguely unsettling, like watching a film of the book where the characters are not who you imagined them to be at all. The first few lines of this novel disabused me of that feeling and went straight into the life of Harry Lanchester (Henry VIII) with a dramatic incident that set both the tone and the plot direction of the book in no uncertain fashion.From this moment on we dip in and out of historical provenance without a second thought and I found myself unconcerned whether or not the author was sticking to the script, because it was such a cracking story. Others have talked about the storyline, so I won’t bother, other than to say it worked and worked well, due in no small part to the lucidity and downright cleverness of the writer.Terry Tyler has a delightful conversational prose style that few achieve in this genre, although many try. None of the characters are cardboard clones of the historical characters and each has depth and an ability to breathe on the page, due to this style. I am constantly reminded of the storytelling capabilities of Catherine Cookson each time I read her. In my book, that’s high praise.If this novel has a fault then I would have preferred less ‘tell’ and more ‘show’. At time it reads like a newspaper article and I think this might be because the author is sticking to the Tudor backstory with which it is paralleled.  This also makes the story a trifle long and lessens some of the impact. However, none of that really deprives from what is a rollicking tale of power, greed, treachery, love, infidelity and stupidity. I genuinely disliked most of the characters for who they were and how they behaved, which, in my case, usually means I’m reading a good novel full of well-rounded characters.And that’s what ‘Kings and Queens’ is: a good novel, written well with a great cast of characters. Not many of them about, despite everybody and his auntie having written a novel and stuck it on Amazon. If you enjoy contemporary works that illustrate how nothing really changes in the human condition and that all of us ‘strut our stuff’ in pretty much the manner as our ancestors, with much the same results, then this is the one for you. I loved it, whilst hating most of the cast!Recommended.