Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

This is the third 2012 Booker Prize long list nominees that I have read, and for the first time, I think this one could win.  It is serious and well written.  The plot is one that we know all too well--Anne Boleyn is now married to Henry VIII, they have a child and while you would think that all is well in the paradise that they have created, it is not. 
Henry is anxious for a clear cut heir, and Anne's first child is a girl.  The people of England have not really warmed to Anne, and she is no help in that arena.  She is wildly jealous and very anxious that her daughter supplant Katherine of Aragon's offspring.  She is unrealistic, and not all that easy to get along with, so she quickly loses whatever allies she once had.  She didn't get very good leadership training, and she didn't have the advantage that Henry had--conniving advisors who were bound to survive, no matter which way the King's wind blew.
This is a sequel to 'Wolf Hall', which won the Booker Prize two years ago (that is this books biggest drawback--it is 'Book Two' to a brilliant piece of work, which is slightly better than this to my read).  It is a story told from the house of Cromwell--so we really get into his head, and it does not make us like him any better for the intimate view we get.  He is not a sympathetic character.  He offers Anne a way out, an option she has to take or leave, on the spot.  It is like a Mafia story--one chance and one chance only.  She failed to see it for what it was, and she was hanged.  Even though we know the whole story, it is still a very good read.