Jeanne Kalogridis has been one of my favorite authors for many years. Her vampire series about the family Dracul is a cult favorite (indeed they are excellent for vampire literature lovers).

Now she has started writing excellent  historical novels, and has created a force to be reckoned with as one of the top historical writers of the present.

Her subject matter? Making someone who is seen to the world in history, and showing their point of view or why these points in history happened.

Did I like Catherine de Medici? No, I wouldn't hang with her.

But the story Kalogridis wove around the de Medici's, the influences that truly occurred, the links in Europe once again proves Ms. Kalogridis' knows her history and gives her tweak on it through a person, Catherine de Medici, who has been called the bloodiest queen (hey - look at her former daughter-in-law) Bloody Mary!!! Court intruige rules in many ways in many lands.

Kalogridis has Catherine de Medici having visions of someone telling her not to leave her, to save her. She interprets it as one of the men who were courting her. She consults with an astrologer/magician and he tells her what she needs to do if she truly believes in this vision and literally makes a blood transaction to help ensure the deal.

Things go the way Catherine wants, but she wants children, and once again Ruggieri, the astrologer/magicial, is summonded, and seems to strike a deal to have children through the death of others. (To every action, there is a reaction in the universe?)

The book is the historical facts of what happens to the people in the family, and you see things done for love in the wrong way, may not be what you wish for. Whether this occult point of view is true (Catherine di Medici) was way into astronomy, and views such actions as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre as 'in the stars' or machinations of those who used the stars to their betterment.

However interpreted, Jeanne Kalogridis takes court intriuge to a level of understanding although it seems 'romantic and exciting', the reality hits you in the face and is not as romantic as you'd think -

Having studied the Borgias, the deMedicis and the Tudors, Ms. Kalogridis weaves a fascinating tale of this point of the Renaissance.

I have always been rooting for her to write about the Borgias, but whatever subject written about, Kalogridis makes the story amazingly addictive, page turning excitement.

A good read. Some have mentioned the sexual content in the book, there are more sex scenes than her other books, but with the intriuge of the day, sex played a lot in the plotting of the book and history.

This book once again proves Jeanne Kalogridis knows historical fiction -

ellen george

The Devil's Queen: A Novel of Catherine de Medici by Jeanne Kalogridis, ISBN-10: 0312368437, St. Martin's Press, review by ellen george