Anne Somerset has written a comprehensive non-fiction account of the Overbury scandal that reads as if it were fictional narrative. The sources are exhaustive but not oppressive, so that this murder mystery turns out to be one of the best historical "whodunits" I have read. The plot is of the ages: the Countess of Somerset is young and beautiful; the Earl of Somerset is rich and powerful. In the Fall of 1615 the Countess and the Earl of Somerset were arrested on sucpicion of having murdered Sir Thomas Overbury. Does the passion, lust and greed
that lead up to their arrest turn the plot? This has it all.

The book is good, but not great. The author presents a good overview of Elizabeth while sometimes going into excruciating detail. There in lies the problem. Much of what I wanted to know more about: court intrigue and the supporting characters were often given short shrift. At the sametime, the author works very hard to maintain the "virgin queen" myth, often off handedly dismissing evidence for Elizabeth's affairs. The book also ends abruptly, telling us little about Queen Bess' last years.

On the plus side, the author does an excellent job explaining the queens religous views. Still, there are better biographies of this facinating subject to be read.

Anne Somerset's biography on Queen Elizabeth I, was the first historical biography I had ever read. I became interested in finding out more about the famous red-haired monarch from the Hollywood version of her life, in the film "Elizabeth". I knew the film version had taken some license with the historical record, but I felt that the more accurate and less glamorous story about Elizabeth, the monarch, had to be interesting as well.

The story of Queen Elizabeth, both as a historical figure and a woman of 16th century England, is a interesting one and Anne Somerset makes it an easy and thoroughly enjoyable read. She goes into great detail and has many annotations to support her statments about Elizabeth, yet at the same time, the reader doesn't feel as if she is reading a scholarly work. It was such a pleasure to read and I found it difficult to put down.

For those of you out there who are either intimidated by biographies and other books about historical figures, or think them dull, this is a great place to start your journey into these kinds of books.

I've read almost a dozen books on the Tudors and this is the best on Elizabeth I. Although I usually get my doses of the Tudors from Alison Weir and Antonia Fraser, Anne Somerset has truly written and organized a beautiful book. An impressive work -- better than any other I've read on the world's greatest monarch.