Review: The Queen's Tears by Elizabeth St.John
The Queen’s Tears
A Julia Darke Novel
by Elizabeth St.John
A stolen crown jewel and an enigmatic portrait force two women to confront the devastating choices they made for love—and summon the courage to live with the truth.
1619: Barbara, Lady Villiers, at the bidding of her brother-in-law, the Duke of Buckingham, has stolen the dying Queen Anna’s jewels—and kept the greatest prize for herself. The Queen’s Tears, a brooch of extraordinary value, torments her: too dangerous to sell, too priceless to discard, and possibly her only means of securing her children’s future. When the family fortunes are shattered, Barbara faces an impossible choice: remain loyal to Buckingham—or betray him by confessing the theft to King Charles.
Present Day: Julia Darke opens her Cotswolds bookshop to start life over peacefully. Instead, she stumbles across a Van Dyck portrait of Barbara’s daughter, with tantalising signs of the missing Queen’s Tears hidden in plain sight. The discovery also brings her face-to-face with the last person she wants to see again. Oliver Villiers, the Oxford art conservator she once loved and walked away from, holds the cipher to the painting—and to Julia’s own unresolved history.
Reluctantly drawn together by a shared obsession to uncover Barbara’s secret, Julia and Oliver follow the trail of the Queen’s Tears—and the closer Julia comes to Barbara’s truth, the harder it becomes to hide from her own.
Inspired by the true stories of Queen Anna of Denmark’s stolen jewels and a missing Van Dyck painting, The Queen’s Tears weaves history, fiction, and family research across the centuries. Readers of The Lady of the Tower will find old favourites—and a new heroine following in their footsteps.
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Review:
An intriguing dual-timeline mystery written by one of my favourite historical fiction authors? Yes, please!
The Queen's Tears is a fabulous new dual-timeline novel, set in England, France, and Ireland, both in the contemporary as in the historical thread. Prepare for a sumptuous journey!
The story begins in the bedchamber of the dying Queen Anna, wife of King James VI / I. The Danish queen left no will, but she did give instructions to her trusted servants, a French couple, the Hugons – and Lady Barbara Villiers – to take her valuables.
What follows her death is one of the most audacious historical plots, as the queen's jewels are packed up, together with many other of her household items, to be taken to France to help the Catholic cause.
The Hugons rake through Anna's belongings like vultures, but there is also a very special item they don't know about – an exquisite sapphire brooch known as The Queen's Tears, with a moving story behind it. Whilst hiding one bag of jewels in the folds of her gown, Barbara also slips the box with the most precious jewel into her pocket.
Also involved in coordinating the theft is her brother-in-law, the ambitious George Villiers, who whisks her away to hide in the Tower, where her sister, Lucy, abides. Having found a safe hiding place for the precious brooch, Barbara travels to Paris on George's orders, with the Hugons. She is promised part of the value once the precious pieces are melted down. But following her arrival in Paris, things begin to unravel, and Barbara must use her quick mind to avoid serious consequences.
Barbara St.John Villiers is a fascinating, real character. Readers of Elizabeth St.John's Lydiard Chronicles will be familiar with her often vindictive actions. In The Queen's Tears, we see her ambition shining bright, but we also gain a glimpse behind her façade. Married to Edward 'Ned’ Villiers, a nice but rather indistinguishable man compared to his younger half-brother, she often becomes frustrated at his lack of determination. Yet Ms St.John also shows Barbara's vulnerable side. Despite her husband's lack of ambition, she sticks up for him, using her influence with George, and through the king's favourite, to James himself. Ned is Barbara's soft spot.
Barbara comes across as an opportunist, but one with an occasional twinge of conscience. She isn't your usual historical heroine, but despite of that, her story remains compelling throughout the novel.
Fast forward to the 21st century, and we meet Julia Darke, a recent divorcee, who, after years in spent in New York, returns to England to start a new life in a cosy bookshop in the Cotswolds. She's also writing a historical novel, so when a painting purportedly of Barbara Villiers is up for auction, she jumps at the chance of getting her hands on it – then she realises that the man who did the evaluation of the painting is her long-ago ex, Oliver Villiers. Determined to prove to herself that the distant past is behind her, she attends the auction. Little does she know that this will lead her even further into the past, and to France, and not all secrets she uncovers along the way are from the 17th century!
Julia is a highly likeable character. At 50, she has experienced joy and pain, and she has come to the realisation that she must put her own needs first. Then Oliver enters her life again, and all her best-laid plans crumble. Readers can easily empathise with Julia, especially as she has been keeping her own, painful secrets from everyone.
The Queen's Tears is a brilliantly told fictional tale of an incredible theft that led to a massive search for Queen Anna's jewels and household items. Ms St.John has weaved a clever web of political and religious plots into the infamous event. She shows her impeccable research skills in bringing vividly to life not only the dangers of the superstitious Stuart court, but also showing the volatile political situations in Ireland and France.
Delving into contemporary fiction is a first for her, but she succeeded in creating believable modern characters with their own flaws, dreams, and experiences.
I'm looking forward to more intriguing stories involving Julia Darke.
Highly recommended.
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Buy Link: Universal Buy Link
This title will be available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
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About the Author:
Elizabeth St. John
Elizabeth St.John's acclaimed historical fiction brings to life her ancestors—remarkable women linked to England's royalty—offering unique insights into Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times. Her novels unfold not just as traditional series, but as an interlocking web of lives: The Lydiard Chronicles—including the celebrated The Lady of the Tower—The Godmother's Secret, and The King's Intelligencer explore everything from the English Civil War to the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. Her newest novel, The Queen’s Tears, a dual timeline pursuing a stolen crown jewel, reunites favourite characters from the seventeenth-century with a present-day bookstore owner heroine.
At the heart of her writing is the transformation of real ancestral histories into narratives of historical continuity. She follows threads of legacy through generations, guided as much by wills, letters, portraits, country churches, ruined castles, manor houses, and lost gardens as by imagination.
Locations become constant companions through time, while characters whisper across centuries—their decisions resonating in the lives of their descendants to reveal how choices shape legacies. Grounded in historic sites like Lydiard Park and the Tower of London, her work creates a living archival flow that continues to flourish as the past yields its secrets.
Elizabeth divides her time between California, England, and the past, surrounded by books, gardens, and animals, with a slightly bewildered, ever-supportive husband beside her.
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