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    The Needle in the Blood
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    The Needle in the Blood
    Unavailable
    The Needle in the Blood
    Ebook726 pages18 hours

    The Needle in the Blood

    By Sarah Bower

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    His lust for power gave him everything. But it might cost him the love of his life.

    The Bishop hired her for a simple job: embroider a tapestry. It is an enormous work, a cloth trophy of the conquest of England. But her skill with a needle and thread is legendary. It would be uncomplicated.

    She plans to kill him as soon as she gets the chance. He and his brother, William the Conqueror, murdered her King and destroyed her world. Revenge, pure and clean. It would be simple.

    But neither planned to fall desperately in love. As the two become hopelessly entangled, friends become enemies, enemies become lovers, and nothing in life—or the tapestry—is what it seems. An unlikely love story born of passion and intensity, crafted by critically acclaimed historical novelist Sarah Bower,The Needle in the Blood is a "story of love, war, and the tangled truth of England's birth."

    Praise for Sarah Bower's Sins of the House of Borgia

    "Sizzling."
    —USA Today

    "The sheer grandeur of the papal and Ferrara courts and the spectacle of the Borgia and Ferrara siblings' rivalries and revenges form a glittering take on one of the most notorious families of the Italian Renaissance."
    —Publisher's Weekly

    "Bower brilliantly merges history with politics and convincing characters to draw readers into a lush and colorful tapestry of Renaissance life...This powerful piece of fiction ranks with some of the finest of the genre."
    —RT Book Reviews

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateMar 1, 2012
    ISBN9781402265921
    Unavailable
    The Needle in the Blood
    Author

    Sarah Bower

    Sarah Bower is the author of three previous novels and is also a short story writer and essayist. She is a lecturer in creative writing at the Open University where she is also a creative and critical writing PhD candidate. Sarah lived in Suffolk for twenty years and now lives in Norwich. She finds the bleak, shifting East Anglian coastline endlessly inspiring.

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    Reviews for The Needle in the Blood

    3.5/5

    39 ratings8 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I found it just too boring to continue reading....
    • 3/5
      The characters are interesting, but the plot moves very slowly and sometimes the book seems overly descriptive. I gave up about halfway through the book since I have other more interesting books to read. The book seems like its a lot thicker than it has to be.

    • 4/5
      There is nothing like a historical re-imagining in the hands of a talented author. In The Needle in the Blood Sarah Bower gives the reader her imagination's take on the creation of what has come to be called the Bayeux Tapestry. It's not a true tapestry as it is not woven but embroidered but it is a magnificent piece of art. In this tale Bishop Odo, also known as the Earl of Kent is William the Conqueror's half brother (he did exist and he was William's half brother in fact). After the Battle of Hastings Odo decides to commemorate the battle and William's victory with an artistic rendering. He calls upon his sister Agatha, a nun with some talent to gather the greatest embroiderers to mimic a hanging he has seen. (In reality it is not completely known how the Bayeux Tapestry came to be or who made it.)One of the women that Agatha recruits, Gytha was in the household of King Harold's common law wife, Edith and was present when William and Odo rode into Winchester in triumph. Gytha watched as Edith was sent away with nothing and she saw Odo's arrogance. She lost everything and was forced into prostitution to survive. It was only her talent with a needle and Agatha searching her out that saves her but her hatred for Odo is what makes her take the job.But there is a fine line between hate and love and Odo and Gytha end up falling in love in spite of his being a bishop. The story that follows shows their love and how it distracts Odo from worshiping William.While the bulk of this book was pure imagination it was a fascinating read. I only got bored during the long, wordy sex scenes when Odo and Gytha first start their relationship. I know! One would think these would be, well, exciting but they just weren't. Too much talking, a bit too much vulgarity of all things and not enough of a scene that read true. But beyond that I found myself involved in a story that I did truly enjoy. (I was reading an advanced copy and this might have been changed for the final version. I have no idea....)The details of the how the tapestry came into being from the drawings to its being pieced together was very fascinating. Ms. Bower's chosen explanations for various scenes that appear in the real tapestry have me now wanting to research further and find a book on the piece. THAT to me is a good book.So pick up The Needle in the Blood for a good love story (when they are out of bed), a wonderful lesson on embroidery prior to machines and post Battle of Hastings England.
    • 4/5
      Prior to reading this book I knew very little about the Bayeux tapestry. When I was in high school the school librarian would show us the slides taken of her trip to France and what I remembered most was her account of the Bayeux tapestry. However, I have never had the privilege of seeing it in person and I never read very much about it. Sarah Bower has done a good job of filling in the back story of the tapestry (which isn't strictly speaking a tapestry but a work of embroidery). William the Conqueror's half-brother, Bishop Odo, saw a tapestry in England and envisioned something similar but on a grander scale to grace his new cathedral in Rouen. He springs his sister Agatha from the convent and commissions her to design the embroidery and find women to do the work. One of the women she chooses is Gytha, a Saxon who served in the household of Edith Swan Neck, the mistress of Harold Godwinson. Gytha was present when Edith went to ask William for the body of King Harold, killed at the Battle of Hastings. William refused to let her have the body and later Odo pillaged Edith's house and sent all the women packing. Gytha was on an errand for Edith and missed being included. When Agatha asked Gytha to become an embroiderer she agrees because she wants the opportunity to kill Odo.Of course, instead of killing him Gytha and Odo fall into bed and begin a passionate love affair. Being a bishop does not stop Odo from keeping a mistress nor does it keep him from acquiring jewels and lavish belongings. As William's staunchest ally he has to attend all the conferences and battles. The time comes when Odo has to choose between Gytha and William. Try as he might to resist William, blood is thicker than water (and other bodily excretions).I found the reading of this book exhilirating but also hard to follow at times. I'm still not sure how Odo and Sebastian first came to meet. The occasional lapse into Latin also confused me because it seemed like it would occur in the book when I was in bed and unable to check for a translation.
    • 4/5
      Some nice period details. I wished for more of an ending to the story. Some bits felt a little disjointed - as though I had missed part of the story or it had been edited out.
    • 4/5
      The Needle in the Blood is the story of Bishop Odo of Bayeux and his mysterious mistress, Aethelgytha. One of the mysteries of the Bayeux Tapestry is a certain panel in which there is a cleric striking (or touching) a woman’s face, with the caption “here is a cleric and Aelfgifu.” The speculation is that the scene refers to a well-known scandal of the day; maybe that of Odo and his mistress? This is where Bower fills in the gaps, and she does an admirable job with it. In the novel, Gytha is a Saxon woman, brought low after the Norman conquest, when she is brought in to assist in the creation of the Bayeux Tapestry, commissioned by Odo and designed by his sister. Although Gytha hates Odo at first, she is nonetheless attracted to the Bishop, holy orders notwithstanding. The novel covers a ten-year period, from the Battle of Hastings to 1077. Although William the Conquror never makes an appearance in the novel, he’s always at the center of attention, because he controls Odo’s life so much.The story is very well told. Although the technical process of embroidering the tapestry is only discussed in any detail at the beginning of the book, it was fascinating for me to learn that the events depicted on it were comprised of the experiences of the many people who created it—and that those people had different perspectives on what happened during the Conquest. There are a number of other mysteries surrounding the figures on the tapestry, and Bower fills in the missing pieces very neatly. For example, was Harold really shot in the eye with an arrow? In part, a lot of historical texts are revisionist, and the Bayeux Tapestry is proof positive of that, so I think the author did a good job with discerning fact from fiction.The love story is very strong, though the sex scenes were a little over-the-top. In real life, Odo was later accused of defrauding the Crown and his diocese, and then planning a military expedition to Italy, ostensibly to make himself pope. It was believed that his wealth was gained through extortion and robbery. It was interesting to me to see how the author tackled Odo’s prickly reputation, and I think she did it admirably.
    • 3/5
      January 1067. Charismatic bishop Odo of Bayeux commissions a wall hanging, on a scale never seen before, to celebrate the conquest of Britain by his brother, William, Duke of Normandy. What he cannot anticipate is how utterly this will change his life-even more than the invasion itself.

      I have to admit I struggled a bit with this book and it took me a lot longer than a book of this length should have. There is nothing per se "wrong" with it, I just had difficulty completing it. Not a book for those who take offence in a certain type of graphic language (which doesnt cover me), this is the story of Bishop Odo (brother of William the Bastard aka William the Conqueror) and the woman Gyltha, who he takes as his mistress after she is one of the women hired to start work on what will become the Bayeux Tapestry. There is opposition on all sides to the relationship, not least because of her lower status and the fact he is a member of the clergy (and the brother of the King) and therefore should be celibate. In the end decisions have to be made....
    • 4/5
      There is nothing like a historical re-imagining in the hands of a talented author. In The Needle in the Blood Sarah Bower gives the reader her imagination's take on the creation of what has come to be called the Bayeux Tapestry. It's not a true tapestry as it is not woven but embroidered but it is a magnificent piece of art. In this tale Bishop Odo, also known as the Earl of Kent is William the Conqueror's half brother (he did exist and he was William's half brother in fact). After the Battle of Hastings Odo decides to commemorate the battle and William's victory with an artistic rendering. He calls upon his sister Agatha, a nun with some talent to gather the greatest embroiderers to mimic a hanging he has seen. (In reality it is not completely known how the Bayeux Tapestry came to be or who made it.)One of the women that Agatha recruits, Gytha was in the household of King Harold's common law wife, Edith and was present when William and Odo rode into Winchester in triumph. Gytha watched as Edith was sent away with nothing and she saw Odo's arrogance. She lost everything and was forced into prostitution to survive. It was only her talent with a needle and Agatha searching her out that saves her but her hatred for Odo is what makes her take the job.But there is a fine line between hate and love and Odo and Gytha end up falling in love in spite of his being a bishop. The story that follows shows their love and how it distracts Odo from worshiping William.While the bulk of this book was pure imagination it was a fascinating read. I only got bored during the long, wordy sex scenes when Odo and Gytha first start their relationship. I know! One would think these would be, well, exciting but they just weren't. Too much talking, a bit too much vulgarity of all things and not enough of a scene that read true. But beyond that I found myself involved in a story that I did truly enjoy. (I was reading an advanced copy and this might have been changed for the final version. I have no idea....)The details of the how the tapestry came into being from the drawings to its being pieced together was very fascinating. Ms. Bower's chosen explanations for various scenes that appear in the real tapestry have me now wanting to research further and find a book on the piece. THAT to me is a good book.So pick up The Needle in the Blood for a good love story (when they are out of bed), a wonderful lesson on embroidery prior to machines and post Battle of Hastings England.