Archive
The complete Open Letters Monthly Archive.
In addition to the pageantry, marital eccentricities, and political fireworks, the Tudors were also industrious religious persecutors. As "A Year with the Tudors" continues, a vivid new book tells the stories of the martyrs burned by Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I.
Read MoreLisbeth Salander, the charismatic bad girl with the dragon tattoo is back in The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye; plus a debut thriller, Good Me Bad Me, that is creepy, unsettling and impossible to put down.
Read MoreIt wasn't a fat, sick, wife-killing madman who came to the English throne in 1509 - as a new book reminds readers, it was a glorious teenage prince.
Read MoreArmand Gamache returns in Louise Penny's latest thriller, and the legendary John le Carré revisits the events of his most famous novel in A Legacy of Spies.
Read MoreBestselling author of Tudor historical fiction Philippa Gregory takes up the familiar tragedy of Lady Jane Grey - and her forgotten but equally compelling sisters - in her new book, as A Year with the Tudors II continues.
Read MoreThis month sees Let the Dead Speak, a fine addition to Jane Casey’s compelling Detective Maeve Kerrigan series, and that special, oddball Monkeewrench crew returns for another delightful caper, Nothing Stays Buried.
Read MoreWhat compromises did women in Tudor England face? What joys? What prospects, if any, for fulfillment? A sweeping new history cross-sections the issue.
Read MoreTwo new novels - one featuring a veteran chief of police and the other featuring Agatha Christie herself - combine thrills, intrigue, and a basset hound named Balzac.
Read MoreAs she did with Katherine of Aragon, Alison Weir gives Anne Boleyn the saintly treatment in her new novel. But does Anne, like Katherine, deserve it?
Read MoreDenis Johnson died last month, but we have his ten novels and his legacy: the inclination to see the great beauty only afforded by the stripping away of joy.
Read MoreJune brings a deliciously devious, dark take on vintage English crime fiction, and the return of a charismatic antihero searching for redemption.
Read MoreMargaret Douglas was the niece of Henry VIII - and a tireless, lifelong schemer and rule-breaker. A definitive new biography portrays the life of the woman who was almost Queen Margaret
Read MoreA down-on-his-luck lawyer in New York and a hangdog investigator in Scandinavia are the heroes in two atmospheric, action-packed new murder mysteries.
Read More"A Year with the Tudors II" continues with a comprehensive new biography of King Henry VIII's fifth wife, the flighty teenager Catherine Howard.
Read MorePoor innocent Lady Jane Grey has been an ostentatious martyr to the Protestant cause for centuries; a new book tells her brief but familiar life story as continues.
Read MoreIn two new thrillers - one starring a bitter spy brought back into the fold and the other starring a group of misfit cops - complicated forces converge to bring terrorism to the streets of London.
Read MoreA new book on the famous Tudor dynasty promises that most alluring of all perspectives on royalty: the back-stage details. But can it succeed? A Year with the Tudors continues.
Read MoreRennie Airth returns with the fifth novel featuring John Madden, who belongs in the pantheon of great, civilized English sleuths
Read MoreJane Seymour is in many ways the most elusive of all the wives of King Henry VIII, dying just weeks after giving the king his longed-for male heir. A new novel delves into the human connection between Henry and his third wife.
Read MoreIn our regular year-end feature, Open Letters editors and special guests look back at some of the books that made memorable impressions in 2016
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