So how does Green's novel stack up with what is known about both Lovell and Richard III? Richard was well liked in the North, and this fictional account based on Lovell's first-hand views are not very balanced. Richard is portrayed as something akin to Shakepseare's Macbeth wherein he is dominated by his scheming wife, with Lovell as the loyal Banquo as depicted by Holinshed in his Chronicles (from which Shakespeare borrowed copiously). As a high-profile Yorkist, the Lovell presented here is rather wishy-washy.

This type of fiction may have been forgiven had this been written a century ago, but with access to today's research, the reader requires some degree of authenticity. Then again, as historical fiction, it is every author's right to interpret events their own way.

The first person narrative severely limits the scope of the story as we only see things as and when Lovell does and gain no perspective of how these events sit in a wider purview. As a novel depicting the relationship between Richard and Lovell, this does not fully meet the brief. As a novel about Lovell, well, this hits slightly closer to the mark. ( )

If you asked me what my favorite book genre is, I’d tell you historical fiction. Historical fiction makes a particular time period come to life for me in a colorful way and makes history even more fun. If I’ve researched the time period, I enjoy the story even more and the story I’m reading reinforces what I’ve learned about a historical event through my nonfiction reading and research. By reading historical fiction, I learn what an author has discovered in his or her research. I learn how someone else has interpreted the events that I have also researched and sometimes I find myself disagreeing with an author’s view of events or characterization of a historical figure. I then do my research after reading a book to double-check my understanding of an event, to double-check an author’s research of the facts, or to just satisfy my curiosity. After reading Nigel Green’s The King’s Dogge The Story of Francis Lovell, I disagree with his interpretation of Richard III and I also want to research three of Richard III’s closest advisers: William Catesby, Richard Ratcliffe, and Francis Lovell.

The King’s Dogge focuses on the life of Francis Lovell, a close adviser to Richard III. Green uses first person narrative to tell Lovell’s story and the action begins with Lovell witnessing a Scottish raiding team destroying an English village in Northern England. Green uses first person narrative through the character of Francis Lovell. It’s an interesting technique, but I don’t think it works well for this book. Lovell as the sole narrator for The King’s Dogge severely limits the reader’s ability to understand and appreciate the complexity of the political issues Lovell and his cohorts had to deal with. I found the justifications for Richard’s ascendency to the throne and the propaganda used to convince the nobles and others to accept Richard as king laughable.

Green’s use of first person narrative strictly through Lovell didn’t help create believable characters either. For example, I found Richard III, as seen through Lovell’s eyes too malleable, not very bright, and an almost buffoon-like character. Through my research on Richard III, I know that Richard III accomplished many good things for the people of Northern England, and that he established the beginnings of the jury system in court proceedings to ensure fair trials. To me, these accomplishments tell me that while other people attempted to influence Richard III, he was an incredibly intelligent and driven man in his own right. While reading The King’s Dogge, I had a hard time believing Green’s version of a constantly hand-wringing duke and monarch. Since Lovell was such a good friend of Richard III, wouldn’t Lovell have had a more balanced view of Richard?

Nigel Green’s historical fiction work The King’s Dogge needs its characters fleshed out and balanced. Most of the time, Catesby, Ratcliffe, Richard III, and Lovell read only like caricatures of the powerful historical figures they are supposed to represent. If Green had let me see more than one side of these people through Lovell’s eyes, I think the King’s Dogge would have been a better novel. (ARC from Netgalley.) ( )