This was bleak, but deeply enjoyable. The whole book just keeps building and building towards this doomed ending that you can feel coming. And I imagine that's how it would have felt to be part of the court of James I at the time. Just this unstoppable machine of persecution and not knowing who it's going to land on next.
So I have to admit, the ending was a bit of a surprise - you never know when an author is going to re-write history or not with these kinds of books. ( )

King James of Scotland is to marry Anna of Denmark and her lady in waiting, orphaned Margareta is to travel with her to Scotland. Anna's powerful mother has tasked Margareta to spy on Anna and has married her to a Scottish spy, Laird John Wemyss. However Margareta's childhood companion Ilsa asks her to contact a cunning woman called Geillis and when she does so it brings her and her family close to treason. Geillis is involved with a coven trying to destroy James and promote the Earl Bothwell to the throne. this is a time of paranoia and James is determined to stamp out any witchcraft in his realm.
This book is based on the true story of the North Berwick witch trials in which it was claimed that both James and his bride had been subject to witchcraft designed to kill them. Over 100 people were executed in a brutal way by burning at the stake, often whilst still alive. Here Kelsey has taken the facts and woven a stunning piece of fiction where woman are cast into roles that they have to fulfil and are subservient to the whims of men. It is a sad story ( )