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| Charlatan by Kate Braithwaite |
My review today is for Charlatan by Kate Braithwaite, an
historical fiction novel that takes us to the court of the King of France.
This book has a dark beginning that sets the scene for an
extraordinary tale, played out behind the opulence and glamour of the court of
Louis XIV in the late 1600’s, where wife, mistress, lover and children
(legitimate and not) play the daily carousel around the Sun King.
Athénaïs, Madame de Montespan, has been Louis’s favoured
mistress long enough to bear him seven children, but the King’s eyes are now on
another. What lengths will she go to, to keep his affections, and is her position
in court really worth the journey into the underground world of the
fortune-teller?
Witchcraft, love potions, spilled blood and sacrifice seem
to be commonplace in Paris at the time, but who was involved and who were they trying
to help? A lifetime of secrecy and lies seems
about to be revealed as Paris arrests fortune-tellers, potion makers and those
suspected to be involved in poisonings. Their imprisonment and torture results
in many fingers pointing to those at the heart of the court of Louis XIV.
Much of what really happened has been lost over time, but the
author has made good use of the mysteries surrounding the facts and cleverly
woven her fiction around what is known. It is a gruesome period of history when
public executions were events to be seen at and torture of prisoners was
commonplace, alongside the desperate conditions of the prisons. All a great
contrast to the opulence of life at court. A question I was left with was who
really held the power, the King, the mistress or the fortune teller/potion
maker?
This book is one for those of you who enjoy gritty historical
fiction.
Charlatan
is available in ebook and paperback format and links to Amazon can be found
below.
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