Rizzio, by Denise Mina, had been sitting on my dad’s shelf for the longest time. It’s one of the books he claimed to have enjoyed reading the most and, when I was getting back into reading, it was the one he recommended to me, perhaps in part to its smaller size and also because of its historical nature.

The story revolves around the brutal slaughter of one David Rizzio, the secretary to a heavily pregnant Mary, Queen of Scots. Set in 1566, the power-hungry Lord Darnley, Mary’s crafty and conniving husband, orchestrates the nighttime murder of Rizzio, with the hidden intention and hope that the shock may cause Mary to miscarry her royal child.

The story is tense, dark, full of twists and, although all the actual accuracies of this historical event are unknown, Rizzio reads in such away that the dramatization seems naturally believable. The conversations between characters read as entirely plausible and the expository paragraphs were thoroughly engaging, adding immersion and details that only helped me to imagine the scenes playing out all the more vividly.

As someone with no knowledge of this event, Mina did a great job in raising my historical intrigue and informing me of the atrocious actions that happened all those hundreds of years ago. I found myself imagining dark and cold nights filled with terror, with the silence in the air being broken by marching soldiers and village folk alike; swords and pikes clashing together and the dull thuds of trooping feet on ancient soil. Mina’s depiction really made me think, and I find, now, that I am actually rather interested in visiting the Palace of Holyroodhouse – a place of historical significance, and where this incident happened – and stepping into the supper chamber where the ghastly murder took place.

Rizzio is a gem of a story that was hard to put down and I would recommend the book to everyone as a fascinating read, whether you’re someone who’s taken by history, or not.