Book description
*Shortlisted for the 2012 CWA Ellis Peters Award*
London, May 1537: When Joanna Stafford, a young novice, learns her
cousin is about to be burned at the stake for rebelling against Henry
VIII, she makes a decision that will change not only her life but quite
possibly, the fate of a nation. Joanna breaks the sacred rule of
enclosure and runs away from Dartford Priory.
But when Joanna and her father are arrested and sent to the Tower of
London, she finds herself a pawn in a deadly power struggle. Those
closest to the throne are locked in a fierce fight against those
desperate to save England's monasteries from destruction.
Charged with a mission to find a hidden relic believed to possess a
mystical power that has slain three Englishmen of royal blood in the
last 300 years, Joanna and a troubled young friar, Brother Edmund, must
seek answers across England.
Once she learns the true secret of her quest, one that traces all the
way back to Golgotha and the Relics of the Passion, Joanna must finally
determine who to trust and how far she is willing to go to protect her
life, her family and everything she holds dear. Nancy Bilyeau is a
magazine editor and writer who lives in New York City with her husband
and two children. She has worked for ROLLING STONE, ENTERTAINMENT
WEEKLY, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, INSTYLE and PARADE. Her screenplays have been
finalists in competitions including the Page International Screenwriting
Awards, Scriptapalooza, and Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope
competition. THE CROWN is her first novel.
