Histria Books is pleased to announce the release of The Crimson Crown by Edith Layton. This novel is published by Histria Romance, an imprint of Histria Books dedicated to outstanding books in the romance genre.
Set against the paranoid early years of Henry VII’s reign, The Crimson Crown follows Lucas Lovat, an exiled spy summoned back to a cold, unfamiliar England to investigate the royal pretender Perkin Warbeck. But what sounds like a traditional Tudor thriller actually reads like a claustrophobic psychological mystery where the locked room is the royal court itself. Edith Layton strips away the usual pageantry to expose the sheer exhaustion of surviving a regime built entirely on surveillance. Lucas is a brilliantly realized lead. He is cynical, deeply observant, and distinctly unheroic in his ambitions. The novel feels startlingly modern in its exploration of espionage, performative loyalty, and the emotional toll of political manipulation.
Readers hungry for historical fiction that prioritizes sharp dialogue and moral ambiguity over battlefield glory will find a refreshing, intensely atmospheric, and razor-sharp story that breathes genuine life into a famously treacherous era.
Edith Layton (1938-2009) began her career as a freelance journalist before publishing her debut novel, The Duke’s Wager. She went on to write over 30 novels, winning numerous accolades including the Romantic Times Award for Best New Regency Author. Today, her classic backlist is being brought back to a new generation of readers, along with several never-before-published works.
