Today I finished a very exciting 600 book historical fiction novel. Why read another long novel you ask? It is because I am still in quarantine on day 17. Since complaining to the correction officers will get me no where, I might as well do something productive.
The book I read is called ” The King’s Deception” by Steve Berry. I have always enjoyed watching movies like National Treasure which involve historical fiction. I was hoping this book would also be enjoyable and it did not disappoint. In fact, it reminded me a lot of National Treasure except the setting for this book is in England.
The story involves the US CIA and England’s MI 6 along with other government agencies from both countries. The CIA basically was trying to prove Queen Elizabeth I was really King Henry’s VIII’s illegitimate son FitzRoy.
The US wanted to prove this in order to have information which would question if Scotland was legally part of Britain. This information if released would cause many deaths in Scotland by means of civil war because Queen Elizabeth I was the person who originally made Scotland part of Britain.
The author went to painstaking detail when describing the scenes in London and Oxford. So much so, by describing what buildings were where and what is housed in each building. The author even stated at the end of the book that he stayed in England a few times to fully grasp what each place represented.
Besides the excitement of the story, one lesson that I was reminded of is your heritage does NOT define who you are. Your actions/choices do. Despite Queen Elizabeth I being an imposter, she (really a HE) performed the duties exceptionally well.
I am glad I read this book since the historicity of it was excellent along with an adventure. Not to mention being reminded that our actions define us NOT our heritage.
If you made some previous bad decisions or even if a relative did which seems on the surface to define you, please know your choices going forward can speak greater volumes than what happened in the past.