Nancy Bilyeau’s, The Crown, is historical fiction with a good portion of mystery all wrapped up in a wonderful debut novel. ANYTHING set during the time of Henry VIII means it’s going to be full of intrigue, scandal, and politics.

There are many aspects of this extraordinary novel that contemporary Catholics will find that they can relate to, namely the confusion in the Church and the compromises of many of her members to political persecution and social expediency, as well as the heroic stand taken by those with the courage to speak truth to power. Young Joanna Stafford finds that in those intense times there is no such thing as spiritual mediocrity; either she must take the high road or face perdition.

One plot element in “The Crown” involves a series of famous tapestries which hold clues to solving several puzzling scenarios. Even as the tapestries are woven by the nuns at Dartford Priory, the author has woven her story so that many clues hidden in the narrative, which make the novel a mystery and a thriller as well as an intriguing work of historical fiction.