If you want an unrepentant, badass assassin heroine, then Milady by Laura L Sullivan is the book for you. I loved it. I gave up precious sleep for it. I want to read it again.

My introduction to The Three Musketeers and therefore the Countess de Winter (also known as Milady) was through the 1993 movie that starred Chris O’Donnell as D’Artagnan and Rebecca De Mornay as the Countess de Winter. It also starred Charlie Sheen, a fact I had clearly scrubbed from my memory. In that movie, just as in the book, Milday is a classic femme fatale. She uses her sex appeal to manipulate good men all while betraying them for her own ends.

Laura L Sullivan revisits Milady’s story from her point of view, and rather than a two-dimensional vixen who spies for the evil Cardinal Richelieu, she’s nuanced, intelligent, independent woman with a complicated past. This is a historical adventure, not a romance, and I do want to caution readers that it contains depictions of torture and attempted rape.

Milady is divided into two sections, the “present day” which takes place in 1628 and coincides with the events of The Three Musketeers, and Milady recalling the events that brought her to this place. If you’ve never read The Three Musketeers that’s fine, although I do recommend reading this Wikipedia summary so you can see how Sullivan’s tale varies from the original. This is a feminist retelling, and to appreciate that you need to understand a little bit about the original novel.

Milady’s true name is Clarice, and she was born in Yorkshire to a noble family. Her father was often at court and her mother taught Clarice everything from running a household, to herbalism, to where to stab a dude if he’s attacking you. When she is of age, her father takes her to be presented at court, and Clarice finds out that her mother was preparing her for survival. Her father, Lord Paget, is determined to use Clarice’s beauty to elevate their family, and he’s involved in all sorts of schemes along with George Villiers (the future Duke of Buckingham). Initially Clarice is so eager to win her father’s approval and George’s love, that she engages in their machinations without realizing the ways in which she’s being used and manipulated. When she learns she’s just a pawn to these men, she basically says “the fuck with this,” and that’s where the story of Milady takes off.

When she refuses to participate in their schemes any longer, Clarice is shipped off to a hellish convent in France. That’s where she meets her BFF, Connie, someday Madame Bonacieux. Clarice and Connie, both abandoned by their families, are meant to suffer and perish at the convent, something neither of them is about to do. They plot together and Clarice convinces a young priest to help them escape.

It’s that escape, and the fact that her would-be-lover, the young priest, steals some valuable church property, that eventually leads to her being branded a criminal–with a literal fleur de lis brand. It’s also that escape that finds Clarice in the French Countryside where she eventually meets the Vicomte who will become her husband, and later, after betraying her, the Musketeer Athos.

If you asked me to elevator pitch this novel, I’d say it’s the story of a woman who was taught the art of spy-craft from men and women who planned on using her, said “oh hell no,” and turned all of their lessons against them until she was in a position of power. It’s immensely satisfying.

Throughout the course of the novel Milady has a lot of adventures (assassinating a guy who is a stand-in for the Marquis de Sade while posing as a prostitute for one). Her life isn’t easy, and while by 1628 she’s one of the most feared assassins in Europe, she’s also ready to start a new life entirely. Her end isn’t the one the novel The Three Musketeers told, and it was satisfying seeing her stay one step ahead of everyone.

Milday seamlessly blends new content regarding Clarice’s life with the details from The Three Musketeers, staying true to the novel, but presenting events in a new light. It also weaves in details from the English court of King James I, and I had to admire the author’s ability to manage all these plot threads. In Milady’s world she is not a villain, but a survivor who turned out to be more cunning than the people who intended to use her. The “heroes” of the original story are revealed to be deeply flawed: D’Artagnan is a would-be rapist, Athos a violent and egotistical man, Aramis a hypocrite, and Porthos a drunk. Cardinal Richelieu is just one of many men vying for power, no more or less evil than the Duke of Buckingham or James I or Clarice’s father.

As much as I enjoyed the courtly intrigues, breathless chases, and historical detail that made up this book (and those things were positively delicious), the real joy for me was watching a capable and intelligent heroine decide to burn it all the fuck down, find her agency, and rise to a position of incredible power. The Milday of 1628 is cynical and weary of constant intrigues, but the younger Clarice is full of rage and happily uses her skills to gain what she wants.

In some ways it was exhausting to see the people Clairce loved constantly fail her (her mother, her father and Athos for example), but it explains how she became inured to murder and why she was so unrelenting about maintaining her independence.

Milady is not a romance novel, and while Clarice does have romances, I wouldn’t read this book expecting to be satisfied in that way. Rather this is sweeping historical fiction that starts in the countryside of Yorkshire, skips over to the court of King James I, then to the French countryside, then to a Paris that is embroiled in political intrigue. This book never slows down, and as a result, I totally pulled a Bad Decisions Book Club, reading until 2 in the morning. If you enjoy a heroine who is full of rage and infinitely more capable than the men around her, then Milady is the book for you.