A Dangerous Inheritance by Alison Weir
Review by Kelsey O.
Weir has taken the two lives of eerily similar usurpers and entwined them in this engrossing novel of passion, rivalry, betrayal, love and loss. Weir takes the reader from past to present by telling the story of Katherine Gray, sister to Lady Jane Grey (the nine-day queen), and Kate Planteganet, the illegitimate daughter of Richard III. Throwing in the secret of the Princes in the Tower, Weir flawlessly weaves the complicated lives of England’s royalty.
After Queen Mary Tudor overthrows Jane Grey, Katherine’s life is thrown upside down and now she must walk the tightrope between Mary and Elizabeth’s rivalry. Katherine has been told that she will be next in line to inherit the throne but as court politics go, she is passed up and Elizabeth ascends to the throne. Having already known what Mary was up to, Elizabeth sees Katherine as a rival for the throne and will do everything to stop her council from naming Katherine as the next in line. After stumbling upon the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, Katherine finds that her life is similar to Kate Plantagenet, whose father was believed to have done away with the Princes. This mystery whiles away the hours that Katherine must spend in the Tower because of Elizabeth’s wanting to keep her enemy close.
Kate has always thought that her father could walk on water but soon she finds that there are many rumors and her own life is in danger being who she is. After being forced into a marriage she didn’t want, Kate finds her quest to discover what happened to the Princes and clear her deceased father’s name, the only thing that keeps her mind off her unhappiness
Though switching from one time period to another was confusing at times, I thought Weir did an amazing job. I highly recommend this for all Tudor obsessed fans just for the fact that it is a unique and refreshing take on the mystery of the Princes in the Tower.
