Book Review: The Traitor's Son by Wendy Johnson
Review for the Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour
The Traitor’s Son by Wendy Johnson
Today I’m hosting The Traitor’s Son by Wendy Johnson, a story about the early life of Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III), as part of the Coffee Pot Blog Tour. I read the novel (thank you for the Advanced Reader Copy), and have written a review (see below). But first, the blurb:
Caught between a king and a kingmaker, young Richard Plantagenet knows he’ll have to choose...
1461: Richard Duke of York, King by Right, has been branded a traitor and slain by his Lancastrian foes. For his eight-year-old son—Richard Plantagenet—England has become a dangerous place.
As the boy grapples with grief and uncertainty, his elder brother, Edward, defeats the enemy and claims the throne. Dazzled by his glorious sibling, young Richard soon discovers that imperfections lurk beneath his brother's majestic façade. Enter Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick—cousin, tutor, luminary—whose life has given him everything but that which he truly craves: a son. A filial bond forms between man and boy as they fill the void in each other’s lives. Yet, when treachery tears their world asunder, Richard faces an agonizing dilemma: pledge allegiance to Edward—his blood brother and anointed king—or to Warwick, the father figure who has shaped his life and affections.
Painfully trapped between duty and devotion, Richard faces a grim reality: whatever he decides will mean a fight to the death.
In "The Traitor’s Son", Wendy Johnson weaves a tapestry of loyalty, love, and sacrifice against the backdrop of England's turbulent history. Through the eyes of a young Richard III, readers are transported into a world where every choice is fraught with peril, and the bonds of kinship are tested to their limits.
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/mdJqL5
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
Author Bio
Wendy Johnson, Author
Wendy Johnson has a lifelong passion for medieval history, its people, and for bringing their incredible stories to life. Her specific areas of interest are the fifteenth century, the Wars of the Roses, and Richard III in particular. She enjoys narratives which immerse the reader in the past, and tries faithfully to recreate the later Middle Ages within in her own writing. She has contributed to a number of historical anthologies and was a runner up in the Woman and Home Short Story Competition 2008.
Wendy is also a founder member of Philippa Langley’s Looking for Richard Project, which located the king’s lost grave in 2012. She co-authored Finding Richard III: the Official Account of Research by the Retrieval and Reburial Project in 2014, and in 2019 received the Richard III Society’s Robert Hamblin Award.
The Traitor’s Son, volume one in a Richard III trilogy, is Wendy’s debut novel and she is currently working on the sequel.
Author links:
Author’s Page on Publisher’s Website: https://madeglobal.com/authors/wendy-johnson/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Wendy-Johnson-Author-61558759768505/
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/wendy-johnson-cf3f97f7-3a8e-46d9-8394-c5a08caa594d
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B0D14SQJP3
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208871994-the-traitor-s-son
My Review
Having read The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman many years ago, and remembering how much I loved it, I was immediately attracted to the premise of this novel. The book cover was also a huge draw!
Richard III is an iconic character in history. The last of the Plantagenets. If he hadn’t lost that last battle to Henry VII (Tudor), the line might have continued, and we’d have never have had Henry VIII and his six wives! We might even still be Catholic in England…
Oh, the possibilities for alternate history!
And, the ultimate medieval murder mystery - did he kill, or order the killing, of his nephews, the Princes in the Tower? We will probably never know.
But the thing that captured my imagination was the fact that he truly was a ‘hunchback’. I seem to remember that historians had poo-pooed this idea for years as a Shakespearean slur, as the first written records that his spine might have been misshapen are from after his death. But of course, when his skeleton was found in a carpark, it was found he did have scoliosis.
Wendy Johnson does cover his twisted spine in the novel, appearing in adolescence, which is biologically plausible. She covered this sensitively and also very credibly in terms of how he may have felt about it.
But I digress. You want the review…
For me, the story was fundamentally about relationships between:
Richard, the youngest of the York children (the protagonist);
His brother George, slightly older;
Their cousin the Earl of Warwick;
Richard and George’s eldest brother, Edward (Edward IV),
The (already dead) father of Richard.
Richard, obsessed by doing right by his father’s memory, is portrayed as the balanced one, possibly the naive one (he was young at the beginning of the novel), who saw the best in everyone, and inspired loyalty due to his own loyalty and compassion, which I believe this is based on what is known of the real character.
George is slightly cooky and unstable, but he and Richard have a strong bond as they grew up together (including a period abroad).
The real issue is, however, that Richard also has a strong bond also with Warwick, being squired with him, training with him, and being treated as part of the family.
Unsurprisingly, when forced to choose between him and his older brother, Edward (who he has really spent little time with in comparison), he is torn.
Ultimately, Richard does what he believes is right. This leads him to have to hold his nose and do things he doesn’t want to quite a few times (I’m sure that was a common issue with royals and nobles), and in the end he ends up on the other side of the battlefield to one of these men that he loves.
Johnson’s writing creates a great sense of place and immerses us into the world. I found the beginning of the novel slightly slow, before he was forced to make choices, but it was interesting to see how his time abroad, being protected as a child, might have been like, and how the bond with George would have formed. But don’t let that put you off, because once it got going in terms of the central dilemma of the novel - being forced to choose between Edward and Warwick - I was hooked, and was immersed in what happened in history, and the foolish hubris of egos that led to ruin.
I know there are more dramas to come in this Plantagenet story (George, the Woodvilles, the Princes), and I’m looking forward to seeing how Johnson takes on the next sets of challenges Richard will face.
A book worth reading, especially if you want to understand how Richard III might have ticked, the reasons why he did what he did in the time period covered by this novel, and why he may have done what he did (or didn’t do), later on, which I presume will be covered in later novels.
Enjoy.