Sharon Kay Penman Books In Order

When Christ and His Saints Slept

A.D. 1135. As church bells tolled for the death of England’s King Henry I, his barons faced the unwelcome prospect of being ruled by a woman: Henry’s beautiful daughter Maude, Countess of Anjou. But before Maude could claim her throne, her cousin Stephen seized it. In their long and bitter struggle, all of England bled and burned. Sharon Kay Penman’s magnificent fifth novel summons to life a spectacular medieval tragedy whose unfolding breaks the heart even as it prepares the way for splendors to come the glorious age of Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Plantagenets that would soon illumine the world.

Time and Chance

The long awaited sequel to Sharon Kay Penman’s acclaimed novel When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance recounts the tempestuous marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II in a magnificent story of love, power, ambition and betrayal. He was nineteen when they married, she eleven years his senior, newly divorced from the King of France. She was beautiful, headstrong, intelligent, and rich. It was said he was Fortune’s favorite, but he said a man makes his own luck. Within two years, Henry had made his, winning the throne of England and exercising extraordinary statecraft skills to control his unruly barons, expand his own powers, and restore peace to a land long torn by banditry and bloodshed. Only in one instance did Henry err: Elevating his good friend and confidant Thomas Becket to be Archbishop of Canterbury, he thought to gain control over the Church itself. But the once worldly Becket suddenly discovered God, and their alliance withered in the heat of his newfound zeal. What Becket saw as a holy mission to protect the Church against State encroachments Henry saw as arrant betrayal, and they were launched inevitably on the road to murder. Rich in character and color, true to the historical details, sensitive to the complex emotions of these men and women, Time and Chance recreates their story with all the drama, pain, and passion of the moment. It is Penman at her best.

Devil’s Brood

The long awaited and highly anticipated final volume in Penman’s trilogy of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine a tumultuous conclusion to this timeless story of love, power, ambition, and betrayal. Where the second novel in the trilogy, Time And Chance, dealt with the extraordinary politics of the twelfth century, climaxing with the murder of Thomas Becket and Henry s confrontation with the Church and self imposed exile to Ireland, Devil s Brood centers on the implosion of a family. And because it is a royal family whose domains span the English Channel and whose alliances encompass the Christian world, that collapse will have dire consequences. This is a story of betrayal as Henry s three eldest sons and his wife enter into a rebellion against him, aligning themselves with his bitterest enemy, King Louis of France. But it is also the story of a great king whose brilliance forged an empire but whose personal blind spots led him into the most serious mistake of his life. Sharon Kay Penman has created a novel of tremendous power, as two strong willed, passionate people clash, a family divides, and a marriage ends in all but name. Curiously, it is a novel without villains only flawed human beings caught up in misperceptions and bad judgment calls. Most devastating to Henry was not his sons rebellion but his wife s betrayal in joining them. How could it happen that two people whose love for each other was all consuming end up as bitter adversaries? That is the heart of Penman s tale in Devil s Brood.

Lionheart

From the New York Times bestselling novelist, a stunning story of a great medieval warrior king, the accomplished and controversial son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine: Richard, Coeur de Lion. They were called ‘The Devil’s Brood,’ though never to their faces. They were the four surviving sons of Henry Plantagenet and Eleanor of Aquitaine. With two such extraordinary parents, much was expected of them. But the eldest charming yet mercurial would turn on his father and, like his brother Geoffrey, meet an early death. When Henry died, Richard would take the throne and, almost immediately, set off for the Holy Land. This was the Third Crusade, and it would be characterized by internecine warfare among the Christians and extraordinary campaigns against the Saracens. And, back in England, by the conniving of Richard’s youngest brother, John, to steal his crown. In Lionheart, Sharon Kay Penman displays her remarkable mastery of historical detail and her acute understanding of human foibles. The result is a powerful story of intrigue, war, and surprisingly effective diplomacy, played out against the roiling conflicts of love and loyalty, passion and treachery, all set against the rich textures of the Holy Land.

The Queen’s Man

Epiphany, 1193. Eleanor of Aquitaine sits upon England’s throne. Her beloved son Richard Lionheart is missing, presumed dead and the court whispers that her younger son, John, is plotting to seize the crown. Meanwhile, on the snowy highroad from Winchester, a destitute young man falls heir to a blood stained letter, pressed into his hand by a dying man. The missive becomes Justin de Quincy’s passport into the queen’s confidence and into the heart of danger, as he pursues a cunning murderer and jousts with secret traitors in Eleanor’s court of intrigue and mystery…

Cruel as the Grave

She was young barely fifteen. A poor peddler’s daughter newly arrived in London, she was loved as much for her good heart as for her good looks. Someone had taken advantage of that sweet nature, leaving her dead in a churchyard, a ripped bodice testimony to her struggle, a bloodstained cross the solitary witness to her end. England, 1193: A land awash in intrigue. While Eleanor of Aquitaine searches vainly for her eldest son, imprisoned by his enemies, her youngest plots to capture the crown. In her service: young Justin de Quincy, the Queen’s Man. What has he to do with common murder, with the death of a poor man’s child? Despite himself, Justin becomes ensnared in the case, seeking to unmask a killer. But can he also bring that killer to justice? Hailed ‘an impressive debut’ Houston Chronicle, nominated for an Edgar for Best First Mystery, chosen by the ALA as a Best Book for Young Adults: The Queen’s Man established a tradition that Cruel as the Grave upholds splendidly.

Dragon’s Lair

The long awaited third novel in Sharon Kay Penman’s much loved medieval mystery series. July 1193: Richard Lionheart, eldest and most favored son of Dowager Queen Eleanor of Aquitane, languishes in an Austrian dungeon, held for ransom by the Holy Roman Emperor. Lu*sting after the crown in England, his brother John plots with his country’s bitterest foe, King Philippe of France, to see to it Richard never leaves Austria alive. But the Queen has already begun to meet the ransom demands, and it is only a matter of time before the Austrians turn over their royal prisoner. And then one of the ransom payments vanishes in the fastnesses of Wales, itself wracked by rebellion and intrigue. Into this maelstrom, Eleanor sends her trusted man, Justin de Quincy and murder soon follows. First introduced in The Queen’s Man an Edgar nominee for best first mystery Justin de Quincy returns in what may well be Penman’s strongest mystery to date.

Prince of Darkness

From the New York Times bestselling author of Time and Chance, the much anticipated fourth novel in her acclaimed medieval mystery series. Bowing to an urgent summons from his former lover, Justin de Quincy hastens to Paris only to find that the Lady Claudine was, in fact, acting on behalf of his nemesis Prince John. As the Queen’s man, de Quincy has already encountered John’s murderous side. But now John tells him of a document implicating him in a plot to kill his brother, King Richard. The document is a forgery, and, despite his hunger for the crown, John is innocent of the charge. Still, a brother who looked with amiable contempt at John’s earlier intrigues would hardly risk regicide. John must find the forger and prove the document false before Richard hears of it, and he entreats Justin to help him. It takes more than John’s wily charms to persuade Justin: It is only when he realizes that the welfare of the woman he serves, Eleanor of Aquitaine, is also at risk that Justin concedes. It is a concession that will take him to a bloody chamber on Mont Saint Michel, to a stinking dungeon in Brittany, to a murderous encounter in a Paris cemetery, and, ultimately, to the unraveling of a conspiracy that might have changed the course of history.

Here be Dragons

‘A masterful picture of Wales in the 13th century…
vivdly pictured as grandly beautiful, its people volatile, stubborn and mystic.’THE SAN DIEGO UNIONThirteenth century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England’s ruthless, power hungry King John. Then Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce with England by marrying the English king’s beloved, illegitimate daughter, Joanna. Reluctant to wed her father’s bitter enemy, Joanna slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband who dreams of uniting Wales. But as John’s attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales and Llewelyn Joanna must decide to which of these powerful men she owes her loyalty and love.A sweeping novel of power and passion, loyalty and lives, this is the book that began the trilogy that includes FALLS THE SHADOW and THE RECKONING.

Falls the Shadow

Simon de Montfort was a man ahead of his time in the thirteenth century, a disinherited Frenchman who talked his way into an English earldom and marriage with a sister of the English king, Henry III. A charismatic, obstinate leader, Simon soon lost patience with the king’s incompetence and inability to keep his word, and found himself the champion of the common people. This is his story, and the story of Henry III, as weak and changeable as Simon was brash and unbending. It is a tale of opposing wills that would eventually clash in a storm of violence and betrayal an irresistible saga that brings the pages of history completely, provocatively, and magnificently alive.

The Reckoning

Penman’s characters are so shrewdly imagined, so full of resonant human feeling that they seem to breathe on the page. San Francisco Chronicle Never forget, Llewelyn, that the world s greatest fool is a Welshman who trusts an English king. His father s words haunt Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales, who has been ruling uneasily over his fractious countrymen. Above all else, Llewelyn fears that his life and his own dream of an independent, united Wales might be lost to Edward I s desire to expand his English empire. Alive from the pages of history, this is the hauntingly beautiful and compelling tale of a game poised to play itself out to its bloody finale as English and Welsh cross swords in a reckoning that must mean disaster for one side or the other. For anyone who has ever wanted to experience the rich tapestry of British history and lore, this bold and romantic adventure must be read.

The Sunne in Splendour

A glorious novel of the controversial Richard III a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history

In this beautifully rendered modern classic, Sharon Kay Penman redeems Richard III vilified as the bitter, twisted, scheming hunchback who murdered his nephews, the princes in the Tower from his maligned place in history with a dazzling combination of research and storytelling.

Born into the treacherous courts of fifteenth century England, in the midst of what history has called The War of the Roses, Richard was raised in the shadow of his charismatic brother, King Edward IV. Loyal to his friends and passionately in love with the one woman who was denied him, Richard emerges as a gifted man far more sinned against than sinning.

This magnificent retelling of his life is ?lled with all of the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and lore of the ?fteenth century, the rigors of court politics, and the passions and prejudices of royalty.