A Little Empire of Their Own: A Novel of Old Mexico

by Bruce W. Farcau

Description

Meet the Empress Charlotte, one of fiction's most formidable elderly ladies since Miss Marple---a seemingly mad royal recluse, who in 1914 is living in a shabby Belgian palace that has seen better days. Charlotte hatches a plot of revenge that will ultimately bring destruction for having betrayed and abandoned her "dear Max" decades before in Mexico. She is ably assisted by Maria, her sultry lady-in-waiting; a handful of loyal retainers; an innocent, if somewhat randy, young German officer; show more the greed of others; and the generally desperate situation the Germans and the allies find themselves in as World War I trench warfare begins to savage a generation. The former Empress of Mexico demonstrates a true master's knowledge of Machiavelli, realpolitik, and a cunning unencumbered with age as she ruthlessly manipulates both sides of the world's first global conflict. To their horror, the WWI German General Staff learns too late never to underestimate a woman. At the end, the lesson is painfully obvious--never anger an Empress, especially is she is the queen of getting even. (Book Jacket) show less