This novel was seriously transfixing. I haven't read much about the Stuart's beyond Outlander which is obviously at a later period and based in Scotland. I've mostly read about the Tudors so it was really interesting first and foremost to delve into a part of history I don't know much about.

Secondly, the characters were amazing. I read a lot of fantasy books which have recently seen a rise in the power of the anti heroine and for me, Frances Howard outshone them all. She was so dark, devious and fierce, and particularly for that era very bold and clever.

It's very difficult to work out in this book who is telling the truth and who a lie. Robert has the fault of looking at everything through rose tinted glasses because of his obsession with Frances, and more than one anomaly appears as the two separate narrative comb over their own version of events. But who is innocent and who is guilty? Who is telling lies and who is telling the truth? For a good 3/4 of the book it's simply impossible to know!

Completely gripping I really found it a struggle to put this one down. I loved The Girl in the Glass Tower and with The Poison Bed Elizabeth Fremantle has fast become one of my favourite authors of historical fiction.