Fiction Pick of the Week: The Best of Men

The Best of Men by Claire Letemendia

This first novel of almost 700 pages is a spellbinding story of England in the mid 17th Century. Claire Letemendia gives the reader remarkable pictures of the intrigue of war, his Majesty, King Charles’s court, what it was like to be scholar at Oxford, and a world where loyalties were tested, passions betrayed, and life precarious. Wonderfully developed characters like the captivating Isabella Savage, the exotic Spanish gypsy Juana, the elderly Dr. William Seward of Oxford and of course the irresistable Laurence Beaumont who is sucked back into espionage after returning from his war experiences in Europe fill the pages. In the end Letemendia provides a complete and very satisfying tale rooted in historical fact and detail.