I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I read The Bolyen Inheritance because it is in truth as much a romance novel as an historical one. However, I do have some knowledge of and an interest in English history, and a relative dropped it in my lap, so what’s a guy to do?

Philippa Gregory has apparently made herself a little cottage industry writing about the world of Henry VIII and his women. What the fascination for women (and that’s clearly the audience here. All the characters are first-person women.) with an obese, homicidal wife-murdering tyrant I couldn’t say. Maybe the same kind of motivation that makes women propose marriage to imprisoned serial killers.

Frankly, I knew little or nothing of Henry’s wives save Anne Boleyn except their names, so it was interesting to have some details, embellished though they might be. Especially Anne of Cleves, one of the two wives who managed to outlive Elizabeth I’s daddy. Nice lady, I guess. Dodged the ax, anyhow.

As for the book itself . . . well, I guess a guy who likes Louis L’Amour shouldn’t throw stones.