Available here (paperback 2024)

Anne O’Brien focusses on the historical true events surrounding Joan de Geneville (Countess of March through her marriage to Roger Mortimer) in A Court Of Betrayal.

The story and life of Joan is fairly well known but mainly from the point of view of Roger or Queen Isabella and her thoughts, involvement and things noted about her are much more through people recording events with the others present. But this book presents itself in a bit of a diary format with each chapter being a different day or a summary of a collection of days that highlight specific events.

It shows the turmoil and heartbreak that Joan goes through with being married to Roger at a young age, her sisters dealing with the consequences of this, and her truly falling in love with him to only be rejected by him when he escapes captivity, flees to France and falls into the arms of Queen Isabella. If you do not already know the scandal and chaos that happened during the time of Edward II and Edward III’s reign then I strongly suggest you do.

Joan has 12 children with Mortimer and finds herself, however hard to personally manage, trying to do her best to protect them and keep them safe throughout her life; This is made all the more challenging with Mortimer constantly doing things that try to elevate his own power but put Joan and her family increasingly at risk.

There doesn’t seem to be any wild speculation from O’Brien about what Joan might have felt through certain events or how she might have reached certain emotional conclusions. A lot of what is in A Court Of Betrayal is based on things previously documented or a set of natural responses and that is what makes this book so brilliant as it doesn’t push into the ridiculous or unlikely.

This is the first book by O’Brien that I have read but given my soft spot for historical fiction it will not be the last. It really encouraged me to delve a little deeper into the real life events covered in the book, enhancing my basic knowledge of it all, and the writing and style kept me captivated throughout. You can certainly see that O’Brien has this genre down but her ability to research so many events and turn it into well presented fiction time and time again is a true testament to her skill.