The Forever Queen

Hollick gets medieval in this excellent historical. As a young teenager, Emma of Normandy is married off to Aethelred of England to secure an alliance in 1002 C.E., and though initially frightened of her crude and violent husband, she soon learns that his bluster is a cover for his weakness and cowardice. When Aethelred dies, his throne is taken by a Viking usurper, Cnut, who claims Emma along with the crown. In him, Emma finds a love that she doesn't expect, but constant political treachery threatens their marriage, their lives, and the inheritance of their children. Hollick does a remarkable job of bringing to life a little known but powerful queen, as well as the milieu and world she inhabited. The scope is vast and the cast is huge, but Hollick remains firmly in control, giving readers an absorbing plot that never lags over the course of a fat, satisfying book. (Nov.) T he Midnight Show Murders Al Roker and Dick Lochte Delacorte, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-0-38534-369-5 TV weatherman Roker and crime veteran Lochte's fast-paced, exciting sequel to The Morning Show Murders takes Roker's alter ego, Billy Blessing, a TV personality on a Today-like show in Manhattan, to Los Angeles. Billy's network bosses have tapped him to be the first weekly guest announcer of a new show, O'Day at Night, hosted by Irish comedian Des O'Day. When a bomb explosion blows an important cast member to bits on the set of O'Day at Night, Billy once again turns sleuth. The case awakens unpleasant memories of the beginning of Billy's career as a cook in L.A. when he unsuccessfully tried to undermine the alibi of Roger Charbonnet, an arrogant but well-connected young chef suspected of killing Tiffany Arden, a failed starlet turned restaurant bookkeeper. A cop who remembers the Arden murder thinks Roger may have been responsible for the bombing. Wry humor lifts this above most celebrity-written fiction. (Nov.)