The extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria's remarkable rule. When Abdul Karim, a young clerk, travels from India to participate in the Queen's Golden Jubilee, he is surprised to find favor with the Queen herself. As the Queen questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance with a loyalty to one another that her household and inner circle all attempt...

Two women occupy a place in Herod's court. The first, Salome, is the king's only sister, a resentful woman who has been told she is from an inferior race, a people God will never accept or approve. The second, Zara, is a lowly handmaid who serves Salome, but where Salome spies conspiracies and treachery, Zara sees hurting people in need of understanding and compassion. Powerful and powerless, Idumean and Jew-- both women struggle to survive in Herod...

Traces the 1560 death of Robert Dudley's wife and the ensuing scandal and inquest that threatened Elizabeth I's throne, in an account that draws on recently discovered forensic evidence to reveal what probably occurred.