Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

The Black King by Francesco Da Mosto. UK release March 31, 2011. It's Venice, 1600. A dangerous place for free-thinkers and gamblers alike and Choradino da Mosto is both. Once the student of Giordano Bruno - newly tried and executed in Rome - Choradino is already being watched. When he is finally arrested he is offered a harsh choice: to remain in gaol or become a spy for the Republic. All eyes are on England, where an ageing Elizabeth has yet to name her successor. The Venetian authorities have intercepted coded messages from the Queen's magician, John Dee. They know Dee is chasing a mysterious manuscript - rumoured to have been brought back from Macedonia centuries before by Marco Polo. Choradino is charged with finding - and destroying - the heretical text before it falls into the hands of the Protestants. Choradino has no choice but to follow his orders. But as he joins a ship bound for Korcula, he discovers another cipher running beneath Dee's code. And the whisper of a secret which could strike at the very heart of the English court...





Lady on the Loch by Betty McInnes. US release April 1, 2011.
A compelling historical novel from a much-loved author - 1567. A young man – Lachlan Gilmore – rescues a lady whose cart has become stuck in a ditch, but unbeknownst to him, Lady Annabel Erskine has a secret mission: to keep Mary, Queen of Scots, imprisoned on Castle Island in Lochleven, supplied with garments fit for her high estate. Soon, Lachlan’s sister, talented seamstress Christina, is assisting Lady Annabel in her work. But as their friendship grows, she is unwittingly drawn deeper into the doomed Queen’s affairs . . .





The Maid by Kimberly Cutter. UK release May 2, 2011. No description yet but the subject is Joan of Arc.



















Shield Wall by Justin Hill. UK release May 5, 2011.
It is nearly a thousand years since England was invaded in 1066. But not many people know that the seeds of the Norman Conquest were sown nearly fifty years earlier, during the height of the Viking Age. Vivid, compelling and firmly rooted in fact, Shieldwall begins during the reign of Ethelred the Unready in 1066 and brings to life a vividly drawn cast of characters, including Macbeth, Godwin, Canute and Harald Hardrada, as well as fascinating and powerful women, such as Lady Godiva and Emma of Normandy who married two kings and gave birth to two more. Beautifully evoking 11th century England, Shieldwall chronicles a period of unprecedented change, immigration and upheaval - the destruction of Christendom's most vibrant civilisation and the eventual survival and reforging of the English nation.



Empire of the Moghul: Ruler of the World by Alex Rutherford. UK release May 12, 2011. Keep your enemies close, and your sons closer...The story of the third great Moghul Emperor, Akbar, leader of a triumphant dynasty which contained the seeds of its own destruction. Akbar, ruler of a sixth of the world's people, colossally rich and utterly ruthless, was a contemporary of Elizabeth I, but infinitely more powerful. His reign began in bloodshed when he strangled his treacherous ‘milk-brother’, but it ended in glory. Akbar extended his rule over much of Asia, skillfully commanding tens of thousands of men, elephants and innovative technology, yet despite the unimaginable bloodshed which resulted his empire was based on universal religious tolerance. However, Akbar's homelife was more complicated. He defied family, nobles and mullahs to marry a beautiful Rajput princess, whose people he had conquered; but she hated Akbar and turned Salim, his eldest son, against him. What's more, as any Moghul prince could inherit his father's crown and become Emperor, his sons were brought up to be intensely competitive and suspicious of each other: to see eachother as rivals for the greatest prize of all. And, as Salim grew to manhood, the relationship between father and son became tainted by rebellion and competition to be the greatest Moghul of them all.