The Devil's Queen A Novel of Catherine de Medici

In her latest historical fiction, Jeanne Kalogridis tells the story of Catherine de Medici. Born into Florence's most illustrious Renaissance family, Catherine was soon left a fabulously rich heiress by the early death of her parents. Violent conflict rent the city state and Catherine found herself imprisoned and threatened with death before she was finally released and married off to the handsome heir to the French throne. Overshadowed by her husband's mistress, the gorgeous Diane de Poitiers, and unable to bear children, Catherine resorted to the dark arts of sorcery to enhance her fertility and foil her enemies. The price would be high: For years she would have visions of a blood-soaked future, predictions that proved true as, one by one, her husband and sons succumbed to terrible deaths. Catherine was famous for surrounding herself with seductive beauties, for the lavish decadence of the French court, and for her use of black magic against those who opposed her--some of whom were closest to her heart. Yet it was Catherine who held France together as the Wars of Religion tore Europe apart, and her successor hailed her as "one of France's greatest kings..."