The Story
England, 1458. The peace is a performance, and everyone at court is counting the days until it fails.
Alice Neville is the Earl of Warwick's spy. She is the reason his garrison is fed, the reason he knows which lords are writing to the Queen, the reason he is still alive. She is also the reason he cannot sleep, and there is no one in England he can tell.
Richard trusts her more than he trusts himself. It is the most dangerous gift he has ever given anyone. When Alice is right, men live. When she is wrong, she learns their names, and there is no one to say them to but him.
Then the Queen's men come for every Neville they can find, and the world Alice built for herself in Calais is gone in a night. She runs. She waits through a winter for a ship that may never come. And when the war finally hands her a way to keep Richard close and keep them both safe, it comes with a ring on it, and a good man's name, and the certainty that she will never again be able to tell him the whole truth.
She is holding one secret that could save him and one that could end them. She has already decided which one he gets to know.
Content note: contains explicit romantic and sexual content, battle, and violence, within a historical fiction setting.
For readers who love the political intrigue of Sharon Kay Penman, Philippa Gregory, and the emotional heat of Diana Gabaldon.
Reading Order
Prequel — The Shadow Years (can be read at any time)
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The Kingmaker's Spy
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The Kingmaker's Secret (you are here)
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The Kingmaker's Triumph — 2027
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The Kingmaker's War — 2027
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The Kingmaker's Fall — 2028