Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel

In this second installment of the Cromwell trilogy, Henry VIII has been married to Anne Boleyn for around three years.  The bloom is off the lily and although he tore his country apart in order to marry her, Henry is no longer that interested in her.  His first wife, Katherine, is dying in the remote castle she was exiled to, and Anne is still actively trying to get between Henry and his daughter Mary.  Anne's daughter, Elizabeth, is just a small toddler.  Henry's eye has lit upon one of Anne's ladies; Jane Seymour.

Cromwell, of course, is tasked with making what Henry wants happen.  He slowly starts to weave a web, talking with foreign ambassadors, lords of the court, religious men high in rank, and listening, listening, to all the court gossip.  If this is what Henry wants, Cromwell will make it happen and since there is no reason to waste a disaster, will use it to take out those men he has had a grudge against for years, when they conspired to have his beloved master killed.

Anne is arrested along with five men who are charged with having adulterous relations with her.  These include a musician who entertained her in her chambers, her own brother, and various men she has been linked to over the years.  The young men, scared beyond thinking, confess and even those who refuse to are tarred with the brush of adultery and treason and condemned to death.  All five, along with Anne, are executed at the end of this novel.

This book won the Booker Prize in 2012.  It is clear to see why as it is fascinating and the reader feels they have a front-row seat at the machinations of a Tudor court.  Cromwell is the spider in the middle of the web, always there waiting, never forgetting a slight or wrong, and biding his time until he can strike his enemies a blow from which they won't recover.  This book is recommended for literary and historical fiction readers.