The Catherine Howard Conspiracy by Alexandra Walsh

A new trilogy set in the mysterious Marquess House in Pembrokeshire, this is part narrated from the point of view of Perdita Rivers, a jewelry expert who inherits the house from her estranged grandmother, and partly from the point of view of Catherine Howard. Whilst I didn't always agree with the portrayal of the historical figures, for example Henry portrayed as a brutal wife beater, I appreciated that whenever the author could she used historical fact, which she explains in the footnote, and she has obviously done her research.   Walsh believes that Catherine was misrepresented by history and was not the airheaded flirt that she has been portrayed as, and I could see her reasoning and wanted to learn more. Of particular note was the idea that she had a cordial relationship with Anne of Cleaves whom she taught to dance. Some of the conspiracy elements seemed a little far-fetched at times, but it did add to the excitement of the novel and I both enjoyed reading it and wanted to read the next in the series. Perdita is an interesting character and I'm looking forward to finding out what is happening with Kit. The Catherine Howard parts were well written from a historical perspective and from the character perspective. You really feel for her as she is forced to marry the repugnant Henry to assist her power grabbing family and it's evident that whether or not he was a wife beater, he did suffer from memory issues. This is available on Kindle Unlimited and I would recommend it for readers who enjoy conspiracy theories, alternative history and historical fiction/contemporary fiction.

The Murder of The Romanovs by Andrew Cook

A history book that uses recently released sources to lay conspiracy theories about the survival of the Romanov family to rest. This is obviously well researched with a full bibliography of sources at the back, and is filled with a surprising number of illustrations for a short book. Cook goes into a great deal of detail about the last few months of the family.

However, I did have reservations about the book. Whilst there is a bibliography of sources divided into themes, I found it strange that there were no proper footnotes or endnotes. Whilst I don't always read all the footnotes, I suppose I find it reassuring to know exactly where the historian has found their information and to tell what angle they are taking with it. Also, I thought this lacked analysis. Most of the book was taken up with the description of what had happened, a small chapter at the end described what was in the newly released documents, then the rest was taken up with the original sources. I felt like I might as well just read the sources direct. The lack of analysis made the history somewhat dry and overall I found this quite an odd book.