'Richly detailed' THE NEW YORKER'Carr has taken an often overly romanticised historical figure
and given her new life and originality.' THE TIMES'A vivid visceral read' TRACY CHEVALIER'Bold
and immediate' TLS***They are imprisoned but not contained. Three women cross a loch. It is
1567 one of them is pregnant two of them fretful. The boat takes them to Lochleven castle in
the middle of the water. Awaiting them are courtiers braying for blood hellbent on keeping one
of them under lock and key: Mary Queen of Scots. In the tower Mary's maids Frenchwoman Cuckoo
and watchful Scot Jane are her only allies and the chamber their entire world. A new reality
sets in where they are at the mercy of not only their keepers but of raging Scotland itself.
In the outside world Mary's kin Queen Elizabeth claims she can do little but write.
Downstairs the shrewd jailor-courtier Margaret Erskine places her daughter-in-law Agnes in the
chamber as her pair of eyes. Hope seems futile until the bewitching Lady Seton arrives. Seton's
power shifts everything in the tower and soon a plan is hatched. But which of them will risk it
all to save their mistress? Which woman loves her queen best? The Tower is a triumphant story
of desire grit God-given power and wiles from a striking new voice in historical fiction.
