Susan Higginbotham seems to have a propensity to write the stories of those much maligned figures from history and redressing the myths surrounding them. And you know what, I like that. I'd much rather have an accurate portrayal than another tired round of dragging up every juicy salacious crumb of rumour just to make a novel interesting. Because it's not interesting. It's cliché and boring and seems to me it does a disservice to the actual historical people. Plus, it's always fun to read the story from the other side, from the perspective of a person who has been branded a villain by later histories.
The Traitor's Wife tells the story of Edward II's disastrous reign through the eyes of his second favourite, Hugh le Despenser, and his wife Eleanor de Clare, Edward II's niece. I loved the attention to detail and accuracy of the setting, the detail of events. The author is impeccably thorough in her research. Getting the small things right is less important than other points in writing a good novel - like writing well-rounded characters, a clever compelling plot, and so on - but it just adds so much. The tiny details weave an authentic world for those characters to move in and that plot to take place. And, having read all of Higginbotham's novels now, I can safely say that this is something she does tremendously well as an author.
One thing I've found with Susan Higginbotham's books, and which I mentioned above, was that I love her characters because they're so subtle and so very human. However, there was one point which I found odd in The Traitor's Wife, and that was the sheer level of Eleanor de Clare's gullibility. It's rare, I feel, to come across someone who is quite that naive, and it's simply that I had some trouble connecting with and identifying with Eleanor because of that particular personality trait.
The Traitor's Wife is definitely an epic, I would say. Which is surprising because from the outside it's doesn't look like the chunksters of Margaret George or the breeze-block tomes of Jean Auel. But it takes us from Edward II as a prince right through his kingship and past the point where Edward III has come into his own and taken control of his reign, and when I finished the book I sure felt like the story had taken me through so much, a really sweeping tide of history. I must admit, The Traitor's Wife didn't quite evoke as much emotional connection or feeling from me as The Queen of Last Hopes did, but still very enjoyable.
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Iset
The Traitor's Wife
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 July 2013Verified Purchase
d.arcadian, letterpress seller extraordinaire
Exceptional
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 August 2016Verified Purchase
bee De
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 March 2015Verified Purchase
Miss Stevenson
A beautiful journey.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 May 2020Verified Purchase
Fiona Gordon
A good historical story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 February 2014Verified Purchase
