Publishers Weekly
★ 09/06/2021
The brilliant adult fiction debut from historian and YA author Jago (The Northern Lights) fictionalizes a 17th-century London murder. Anne Turner, a skilled herbalist with a gift for fashion, leads a comfortable middle-class life with her physician husband and six children. Frances “Frankie” Devereux, a member of the powerful Howard family, is married to the physically abusive Earl of Essex. When the two women meet in 1609, they feel a “profound sense of recognition” despite their differences in age, situation, and class. The following year, Anne’s husband’s death leaves her and the children impoverished, while Frankie becomes infatuated with Robert Carr, King James’s favorite courtier. As Carr falls in love with Frankie, his doting friend Thomas Overbury, a bitter misogynist who loathes the Howards, grows jealous. Frankie’s family decides to arrange the annulment of her marriage to Essex, but salacious rumors spread by Overbury sabotage her reputation and their plan. Swayed by Frankie’s misery and reliant on her financial assistance, Anne accedes to her friend’s conviction that Overbury must die. “If I were a man, I could end this with a duel,” Frankie says as the two decide to poison him. Jago’s striking depictions of bearbaiting and court mourning, wedding breakfasts and adulterous trysts capture both the brutality and the refinement of Jacobean London. Anne’s shrewd narration grounds the novel’s explosive drama even as she slides toward mortal danger one apparently logical choice at a time. It adds up to a remarkable exploration of the power, limits, and price of women’s friendship. This is a sparkling achievement. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
A Most Anticipated Book of the Month (PopSugar, The Mary Sue, Business Insider)
"Jago weaves an intricate web of social, sexual, and political maneuvers that entangles all her characters . . . [A] narrative stuffed with vividly drawn secondary characters and atmospheric set pieces . . . highly satisfying entertainment."
—Washington Post
"A juicy historical novel that combines the literary spells of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and the delicious feminine drama of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton. A riveting and immersive tale about the bravery, alliance, and strength of women in the face of oppression and expectation."
—Amazon
"A terrific first novel, rich in colour, character, place, and time. If you like your history spiced with sex, scandal, and the sweet sensibilities of female friendship, then this is for you."
—Sarah Dunant, New York Times bestselling author of The Birth of Venus
"The Jacobean Era comes to life in this sumptuous story of a scandal that rocked the times. At the heart of this glorious novel is a friendship between Anne Turner, a gentlewoman and Frances Howard, a privileged woman of the upper class who is stuck in an abusive marriage with no intention of staying in it. Though they come from different social classes, they cleave together to change the course of their lives through tragedy and loss to find happiness. Romance, intrigue, beauty, and truth—it's all here as the women determine their own fate in a time when choice was impossible. Lucy Jago writes as though she was there—this author is a wonder."
—Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Shoemaker's Wife
"Based on a true story, A Net for Small Fishes is a magnificently accomplished piece of historical fiction set in Jacobean London. This stunning novel of two brave and independent women doing what they must to survive in a man’s world is ripe with scandal and gossip, lust and betrayal, corruption and venality—thoroughly modern resonances, in other words. Lucy Jago marshals all this with consummate skill and wit, but she also writes with tremendous heart. The result is a thoroughly entertaining and deeply satisfying read. I can’t recommend it highly enough."
—Alex George, author of The Paris Hours
"A Net for Small Fishes is strung so tight with suspense that I read with my heart in my throat, watching as Anne and Frankie meet the myriad, shifting treacheries of their lives with an awe-inspiring largeness of spirit, loyalty, and love. This novel immersed me so fully in another world that I seemed to breathe its air, walk its halls—yet for me its greatest achievement lies in the vivid life it gives these women, who are forces of nature but also fully human, and who dare to try to carve out a space in their world that can fit them. Their story is spellbinding."
—Clare Beams, author of The Illness Lesson
"Brilliant . . . Jago’s striking depictions of bearbaiting and court mourning, wedding breakfasts and adulterous trysts capture both the brutality and the refinement of Jacobean London. Anne’s shrewd narration grounds the novel’s explosive drama even as she slides toward mortal danger one apparently logical choice at a time. It adds up to a remarkable exploration of the power, limits, and price of women’s friendship. This is a sparkling achievement."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Jago presents a realistic and absorbing tale based on historical events, convincingly portraying the Jacobean period and personal relationships during that time between husband and wife, lovers, and female friends. Her characterization is rock-solid, and Anne’s voice resonates in this drama about how life choices, what is permissible and what isn’t, especially for women, form a slippery slope that can end at the gallows."
—Booklist, starred review
"Enthralling and moving."
—People
"Sumptuous . . . If you're feeling bereft after finishing The Mirror and the Light, let Jago transport you back to the Jacobean court."
—Telegraph
"Bravura historical debut . . . Jago keenly conveys the peril of being a woman of any class in the 17th century . . . Like all the best historical fiction, A Net for Small Fishes is a gloriously immersive escape from present times, but it’s not escapism."
—Guardian
"A superb exploration of female agency, sexuality and class . . . A scintillating novel that plunges you head-first into a darkly compelling chapter of British history."
—Observer
"Riveting . . . In a narrative that brims over with colour and invention, Jago summons up Jacobean London with enormous persuasiveness."
—Sunday Times, Book of the Month
"A powerful take on a fascinating piece of history."
—The Times (UK)
"Rich in intrigue and incident, with a cast of vividly drawn characters and a wealth of detail on every atmospheric page, this is a fabulously engaging read."
—Daily Mail
"Will bring wit, wisdom, joy and comfort to your reading pile . . . There's no messing about in Lucy Jago's A Net For Small Fishes. From the first chapter you're plunged into the dark intrigues, violence, vying for position and cruelty of the 17th century Jacobean court as society beauty Frances Howard meets Anne Turner, whose way with bodices, stockings and eyelashes is unequalled."
—Stylist (UK)
"A sensuous evocation of 17th-century noble shenanigans. Jago offers a timely lens through which to reconsider power dynamics in Jacobean England . . . Seamless and stylish . . . Set in 1609, 69 years after the Mantel trilogy concludes, so those mourning Cromwell may find much to scintillate here."
—The Irish Times
"A magnificent reimagining of a scandal in the Jacobean court . . . Masques, machinations and murder ensue, as well as affairs, gorgeously described clothes, and a dangerous friendship."
—Tatler
"Dazzling."
—Sunday Independent
"The Thelma and Louise of the seventeenth century: two mismatched heroines, two grittily textured lives, an outrageous plot (true!), sex, politics, and a gut-wrenching ending."
—Lawrence Norfolk, author of John Saturnall's Feast
“Full of colour, intrigue, and historical characters we can relate to . . . Jago has a great flair for the sensuous image and evokes the heady mix of gaudy glamour and grime that characterises the era with a distinctive, dense poetry. Historical fiction at its scintillating best and most filmic."
—Susan Elderkin, author of Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains
"A fabulous book. Frankie and Anne's world is not just brilliantly evoked but brilliantly sustained. Lucy Jago doesn't make a single false step. And it's exciting!"
—Andrew Miller, author of Pure
Library Journal
★ 12/03/2021
Jago's first adult novel vividly depicts a 17th-century scandal in the British royal court of King James. Frances Howard is married to the Earl of Essex, who is impotent and abusive. Anne Turner, mother of six, wife of a court doctor, and patent holder, has been summoned to make Frances presentable. Anne finds "Frankie" drunk and bearing fresh whip marks from her husband, but Anne gently bandages the wounds and cunningly fashions an elegant dress for her. Finding support in each other, Anne and Frankie become close friends despite their vast difference in rank. Anne helps facilitate Frankie's affair with Robert Carr, the king's favorite companion, while Frankie keeps Anne and her children from destitution when her husband unexpectedly dies. Frankie hopes to annul her marriage and marry Carr, but Carr's friend Thomas Overbury strongly opposes the match and works against them. Ultimately the king puts Overbury in the Tower of London, and Frankie and Anne orchestrate Overbury's murder in order to protect their futures. VERDICT Richly embellishing the true historical framework, Jago gives Anne an incredibly compelling voice and explores how circumstances and loyalty to Frances lead her down a ruinous path.—Melissa DeWild, Comstock Park, MI
Kirkus Reviews
2021-08-18
Jago’s novel retrieves two women “from the limbo of misogynist stereotype”: the Countess of Essex, Frances Howard, and commoner Anne Turner, both of whom were charged with fatally poisoning a courtier in the Overbury scandal, which rocked the court of King James I in early-17th-century England.
The women have strong wills and good looks in common. They are also both dangerously Catholic during a Protestant monarchy. But their friendship is never quite equal as seen through Anne’s eyes. Married to the duke’s personal physician, she holds a patent for the yellow starch used in ruffs and dabbles in designing dresses for high-born ladies to make ends meet. Frances is a member of the politically influential Howard family (as were two wives of Henry VIII, as Wolf Hallfans may remember). In 1609, Anne has been hired to help the 18-year-old countess dress to win over her impotent 17-year-old husband, the Earl of Essex, who has been whipping Frances raw during their loveless three-year marriage. (Almost as an aside, 34-year-old Anne brags that her own impotent husband condones her long affair with the father of her three youngest children.) As narrator, Anne at first seems more observer than participant, an outsider sharing her insights on the nobility, particularly Frances—a great beauty with a defiant streak—but it becomes clear that Anne recognizes that helping Frances reach her magnetic potential at court may raise her own station. As Essex’s vicious attacks escalate, Frances begins an affair with Sir Robert Carr, King James’ favorite, and the newly widowed and increasingly impoverished Anne becomes her sole confidante. Both idolizing and resenting the countess’s self-centered privilege, Anne finds herself helping Frances acquire potions and illegal magic to control first Essex, then Carr’s malevolent aide Thomas Overbury. Frances' motivations are clear: passion and revenge. But Anne’s are a murkier mix of loyalty, desperation, and ambition.
An empathetic—but not entirely sympathetic—portrait of women in the male-dominated society of post-Elizabethan England.
