Elizabeth I by Margaret George, 671 pages

One of today's premier historical novelists, Margaret George dazzles here as she tackles her most complex subject yet: Elizabeth Tudor, England's greatest queen, who has baffled and intrigued the world for centuries. But what was she really like? In this novel, Elizabeth's flame-haired, look-alike cousin, Lettice Knollys, thinks she knows all too well. And as Elizabeth and Lettice, two women of fierce intellect and desire, vie for power and the love of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, everyone in the court's orbit is drawn into their rivalry and its escalating drama. This magnificent, stay-up-all-night page-turner is George's finest, a spectacular portrait of the alluring yet elusive woman who ruled over the golden age of British history and culture-and of the one woman she could not control.