Haunted by a painting seen in the Louvre, a young artist returns to her native town to discover the truth about what happened to her mother, who is believed to have committed suicide. As the mystery begins to unravel, she finds herself drawn into a web of hypocrisy and deceit, leading to a startling conclusion...

Spring 1917 - the war has been raging for over two and a half years and neither the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey) nor the Entente (Britain, France, Russia and Italy) are any closer to a decisive victory. In Russia, the Revolution and enforced abdication of the Tsar has left the country in the shaky hands of the Provisional Government but as the Bolsheviks begin to seize power it is clear that behind the scenes something rather sinister is occurring. Both Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, and Karl, the new Emperor of Austria-Hungary, are eager to pursue peace but the United States' entry into the war thwarts their efforts and leaves them convinced that the true aim of the conflict is the destruction of their monarchies. Based on actual events, 'The Betrayal' is the third book of the 'Shattered Crowns' trilogy which follows the tragic story of the royalties who sought peace throughout the bloodiest conflict of the 20th century.

Of all Queen Victoria's nine children, none was more intriguing than her second daughter, Alice. The contradictions in her personality are so striking that, while she has often been overshadowed by her more illustrious brother, King Edward VII, and her brilliant sister, the German Empress Frederick, she remains to this day an enigma, the depths of whose character are virtually impossible to penetrate. By the time of her premature death at the age of only thirty-five, Alice had lived through two wars, had lost two of her children, and had exhausted herself in her devotion to duty to the extent that she suffered from disillusionment almost to the point of despair. Nonetheless, in the final tragic weeks of her life, she met unimaginable grief with courage and serenity, and her last words demonstrated her ultimate redemption and the beautiful restoration of all she had loved and lost.

On 6th July 1868, when told of the birth of her seventh granddaughter, Queen Victoria remarked that the news was 'a very uninteresting thing for it seems to me to go on like the rabbits in Windsor Park.' Her apathy was understandable - this was her fourteenth grandchild, and, though she had given birth to nine children, she had never been fond of babies, viewing them as 'frog-like and rather disgusting...particularly when undressed.' The early years of her marriage had, she claimed, been ruined by frequent pregnancies; and large families were unnecessary for wealthy people since the children would grow up with nothing worthwhile to do. Nevertheless, her initial reaction to the birth of Princess Victoria of Wales belied the genuine concern that Queen Victoria felt for each of her twenty-two granddaughters. 'As a rule, ' she wrote, 'I like girls best, ' and she devoted a great deal of time to their wellbeing and happiness, showering them with an affection she had seldom shown her own children. By 1914, through a series of dynastic marriages, the Queen's granddaughters included the Empress of Russia, the Queens of Spain, Greece and Norway, and the Crown Princesses of Roumania and Sweden. As their brothers and cousins occupied the thrones of Germany, Britain and Denmark, Prince Albert's dream of a peaceful Europe created through bonds of kinship seemed a real possibility. Yet in little more than a decade after Queen Victoria's death, the Prince Consort's dream would lie shattered in the carnage of the First World War. Royal cousins and even siblings would find themselves on opposing sides; two of them would die horrifically at the hands of revolutionaries and several others would be ousted from their thrones. They had lived through the halcyon days of the European monarchies but their lives, like the lives of millions of their peoples, would be changed forever by the catastrophe played out on the battlefields of France.Through all the upheavals, tragedies and conflicts one person had bound them together and, even when wars had divided their nations, to the end of their lives, they would look back and remember 'dearest grandmama' with lov

In the summer of 1914 the capitals of Europe erupt in a patriotic frenzy as peoples on all sides, roused by the press, rejoice at the outbreak of the 'war to end wars'. The rejoicing soon turns to disillusionment as the full horrors of the bloodiest conflict the world has ever seen become apparent. For the Emperors of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia comes the growing awareness that this war, which they sought desperately to avoid, is not being fought for territory or honour, but rather to destroy the old world order and to replace their autocracies with secular ideologies and international economic control. Amid the intrigue and deception, Kaiser Wilhelm, Tsar Nicholas, Emperor Franz Josef, Archduke Karl, and Queen Marie of Roumania not only face the horrific sacrifice of their people, but are also confronted by their own personal and family tragedies. 'The Sacrifice' is the second novel in the Shattered Crowns trilogy, following the royalties of Europe from 1913 to the Treaty of Versailles. 'The Sacrifice' covers the the period from the outbreak of war to the Russian revolution (1914-1917) and is based on actual events.

On 28th June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his morganatic wife, Sophie Chotek, were shot dead in broad daylight on a crowded street in Sarajevo. The murder of a relatively unknown archduke in a remote Bosnian city might well have been quickly forgotten were it not for the fact that this seemingly minor event ignited a spark that would explode into one of the bloodiest conflicts in history. Within four years, over sixteen million people from one hundred countries would lie dead on the battlefields of the First World War. By 1914, through a series of alliances, Europe was largely divided into two separate camps: the Triple Alliance of the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, and the Triple Entente of Russia, Britain and France. The clashing of these empires has often led to the First World War being described as an Imperial War and their emperors have provided a convenient scapegoat on which to pin the blame for the consequent slaughter. In reality, however, not one of these monarchs - who were close friends and cousins - had any desire for war and each of them struggled desperately to maintain peace. "All our cousins," wrote Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, "were more like brothers and sisters than mere blood relations." This novel - the first in a trilogy following the royalties of Europe from 1913 to 1918 - tells the story of the year leading up to the outbreak of war and the very human tragedy that befell those cousins and friends; a tragedy which might have been deliberately engineered to lead to the destruction of the Russian, Austrian and German monarchies.

At the age of nineteen, Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth of Hesse, stepped into the glittering court of the Romanovs, beginning a journey that would lead her from the shimmering ballrooms of St. Petersburg to the back streets of Moscow. Through intrigues, assassination, war and revolution, to the tragedy of her own horrific murder, she remained true to her calling to bring beauty into the world. Based on the true story of 'the most beautiful princess in Europe', this novel is written in tribute to a remarkable and courageous woman.