Readers hoping for a fictionalized biography of Mary Queen of Scots on the level of Margaret George's Mary Queen of Scotland & the Isles: A Novel (LJ 8/92) will be disappointed. Focusing primarily on the "political intrigues" surrounding Mary after her return to Scotland, this narrative lacks the complexity that made George's account so engrossing. The characters are wooden and unsympathetic, and there is little insight into Mary herself, who often seems peripheral to her own story. Although Tannahill (Return of the Stranger, LJ 4/1/96) does set the social and political scene, she pays more attention to Elizabeth I's motivations (seen through Scottish eyes) than to those of Mary or any of the Scottish nobles. Readers eager for anything about Mary and her times will probably want this; others want to look elsewhere.?Karen E. Sadowski, Simmons Coll., Boston Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.