The Empress of the Last Days — Jane Stevenson

"The Empress of the Last Days" is the final volume of the remarkable trilogy that began with "Astraea" and "The Pretender". Whereas the events of those novels occurred in the seventeenth century, those of this novel take place now, in the twenty-first. A series of documents come to light in Middelburg and London. They touch upon the events described in "Astraea" and "The Pretender". A group of friends, Corinne, Theodoor and Michael, bring together their talents and knowledge to uncover the hidden story of Pelagius's royal marriage. The lives which readers of the first two books have known as lived experience have been reduced to information, guesses based on dusty scraps of paper. As a result of their investigations, Michael finds himself journeying to Barbados to meet the last descendant of the marriage of Pelagius and Elizabeth of Bohemia - a young black scientist who, unknown to herself, has a serious claim to be considered the rightful queen of England. This meeting, and the discoveries which result from it, changes both their lives, and forces them to re-examine their assumptions and the terms on which they live. "The Empress of the Last Days" is set in Middelburg, Utrecht, London, Silloth on the coast of Cumbria, and Barbados. It is in part a tale of discovery, and in part a love story: a tragicomedy in which race, academic politics, and contemporary enthusiasm for 'spin' all have their parts to play.