The Twylight Tower
Grade : C

While I enjoy mysteries and love Elizabethan history and politics, I have to say that The Twylight Tower never really got off the ground for me. It manages to be interesting without being engaging, and the pacing is entirely too slow for a story involving multiple mysterious murders that seem to be pointing to an attempt on the Queen's life.

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Nonetheless, Elizabeth I's court is well represented, particularly in principle players Robert Dudley (the future Earl of Leicester, and - more importantly - the Queen's clandestine would-be lover), William Cecil (Elizabeth's loyal but not always submissive secretary), and the wily Bishop de Quadra (ambassador from England's former ally, a very Catholic Spain). Each of these characters, who all eventually become suspects in the murders that seem aimed at the Queen herself, is well drawn in terms of history and personality - especially Robert and William, the two closest to the Queen's heart. The one problematical character was none other than Elizabeth herself, who often seemed too indecisive and easily influenced to be the canny survivor of dangerous times who eventually became one of the greatest monarchs in English history. It's true that the story takes place early in her reign, but she often seems not to fit the forceful character that history remembers.

In this, the third installment in Karen Harper's Elizabethan mystery series, the Queen is distressed when her favorite lutenist falls to his death, seemingly from drunken clumsiness. The rest of the "Privy Plot Council," formed in previous books to aid the Queen in her sleuthing, are distressed that Elizabeth appears content to dismiss Geoffrey's death as an accident and begin to investigate on their own. Meanwhile, a talented but secretive young lad by the name of Franklin Dove conveniently appears to take Geoffrey's place. Shortly afterward, another new addition to the Queen's court, the young Luke Morgan, takes a fall of his own that seems to endanger Elizabeth's life as well. When he dies within days, the Queen is finally ready to investigate. But while the Privy Plot is doing their work at court, Robert Dudley's country wife Amy - already dying of breast cancer - breaks her neck as a result of a suspicious fall down a flight of stairs. Because this last fall seems all too convenient for the would-be lovers Elizabeth and Robert - or is it? - the whole of Europe soon suspects one or both of them of engineering the death to suit their own purposes. And now the Privy Council must solve the mystery of three separate deaths by falling that could leave the fate of England hanging in the balance.

Elizabethan afficionados will enjoy the realism of the cast and some of the events. Elizabeth Tudor, Robert Dudley, William Cecil, Bishop Alvaro de Quadra, Henry Carey, Katherine Grey, and others march straight out of the history books. And the death of Amy Robsart is a mystery that intrigues historians even to this day. But somehow, even when combined with the interesting-enough multiple-mystery plot, they still fail to capture the imagination and draw in the reader - even in the thick of the action, things move quite slowly and suspense is non-existent. And as for romance, well, there is only the doomed relationship between Elizabeth and the none-too-savory Robert Dudley, and frankly, for me, that combination didn't do the trick.

While others may be a bit more patient with The Twylight Tower, I had a hard time staying focused while reading it. This is not the Elizabeth I've enjoyed learning about and while some of the other characters were interesting, the author took too many liberties with her lead, rendering her less majestic and more generic than she truly was.

Reviewed by Heidi Haglin
Grade : C

Sensuality: N/A

Review Date : May 20, 2002

Publication Date: 2002

Review Tags: 1500s Elizabethan

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Heidi Haglin

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