After the runaway success of her first book, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, freelance journalist Bennett is really getting the hang of this historical novel writing!

Her first adventure as an author was a marvellous imagining of Hans Holbein's visit to the home of Sir Thomas More to paint his famous family portrait.

This time readers are transported back to the close of the War of the Roses when England was on the cusp of becoming a great empire.

Edward IV, one of the last of the Plantagenets, was virtually bankrupt and London's rich merchants - the men with the real money - held the balance of power. They financed the royals - their marriages and their wars - in exchange for court patronage.

Thus when wealthy silk merchant John Lambert suffers a fall from grace at the Guildhall in 1471 and resorts to marrying off his two beautiful daughters, their fortunes are set to change forever.

Elder daughter, the beautiful Jane Shore, starts a notorious affair with the young Yorkist King Edward IV who faces a constant threat from the Lancastrian armies.

But it is her sister, Isabel, forced into marriage with another silk merchant, the fat, unsexy but highly successful Thomas Claver, who emerges as the real heroine of this richly woven tale.

The dark and brooding stranger who comforts her in a small downtown church as she contemplates marriage to the slack-mouthed and leering Mr Claver turns out to be one of the most controversial figures in English history.

And when her husband dies and the handsome stranger returns, Isabel starts to discover that her new lover is not quite the Mr Nice Guy she once imagined him to be ...

Just as fascinating as the sisters' love interest is Isabel's immersion in the world of silk-weaving and her adventures in the cut-throat battle for world trade.

We learn about the city merchants' bid to subvert Venice's control of the silk trade by importing weavers to work secretly in London and their poaching of jealously guarded trade secrets.

And as the new silkweaver to the court, Isabel becomes privy to its most intimate secrets. With her sister now established as the king's mistress, could the two women hold the keys to power in this time of uncertainty?

This is one of those wonderfully memorable historical novels that has everything ... heroes, villains, power, passion, politics and intrigue.

As always, Bennett's research is impeccable and her weaving of fact and fiction is so seamless that you can barely see the joins. Real historical figures mingle with the rich pickings of the author's well-developed imagination to recreate a world that is both credible and entertaining.

Another spellbinding tale from an author who brings history to life.

(HarperCollins, hardback, £14.99)