Pale Mistress

Name: Pale Mistress
Brand: Harper UK
Availability: InStock
Author: Naomi Kelsey
ISBN: 9780008803780

Author: Naomi Kelsey

Narrator: Isabella Inchbald

Unabridged: 12 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperNorth

Published: 07/16/2026

Categories: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adaptations, Psychological, Feminist, Suspense & Thriller

Synopsis

“Let heaven and men and devils, let them all, all, cry shame against me, yet I’ll speak…” Cyprus, 16th century. Murder, lies and vengeance has left lovers dead, promises broken and no one to trust. Only one woman survives, Bianca. The slain? History knows their names: Emilia, Desdemona, Othello. But why do we not know Bianca? Who was the pale mistress? Liar or lied to? Instigator or victim? In telling one woman’s story, Naomi Kelsey dazzlingly recasts a Shakespearean tragedy as a psychological thriller of jealousy and gaslighting, ambition and envy, and the making and breaking of one of Shakespeare’s most notorious villains, Iago.

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Quotes

PRAISE FOR

‘A bold and beautiful triumph. In prose as rich as Cyprus wine and as sharp as a Venetian blade, Naomi Kelsey gives voice to the silenced and reshapes tragedy through a woman's eyes. Lyrical, haunting, and breathtakingly tense, this is historical fiction at its most electrifying.’

'Once again, Naomi Kelsey bestows us with a thrilling and infuriating story of love, lies and betrayal. An utterly convincing addition to Shakespeare's '

'Naomi Kelsey continues to cement her position as one of the most accomplished and empathetic writers of historical fiction.'

***

PRAISE FOR

‘Deliciously gothic and twisty, Naomi Kelsey has crafted a deeply haunted mystery novel that I found impossible to put down.’

‘An Elizabethan psychological thriller – who could ask for more? Confident, vividly imagined, infused with historical detail and riven by dramatic tension’

'Ravishing, creepy, meticulously researched, is an intoxicating story of Elizabethan exploration, madness and murder.'

‘I could not put it down until every secret was exposed.'