Queen's Bounty

June 18, 2012
Buckley’s well-paced 10th Tudor mystery featuring Ursula Blanchard (after Queen Without a Crown) finds Ursula, former lady-in-waiting and half-sister to Elizabeth I, happily married to her third husband, Hugh Stannard, and preparing for her daughter’s wedding. Then she receives an unsettling letter from Anne Percy, the countess of Northumberland, a Mary Stuart supporter now living in exile in the Netherlands. Anne accuses Ursula and her manservant, Brockley, of destroying “both my hopes and my dignity,” and vows vengeance. Hugh and Brockley, whom Anne suggests is Ursula’s lover, try to reassure Ursula that Anne can do her no harm, but soon a plague of troubles descends on their Surrey household. Accidental mishaps prove to be the work of a devious villain. When Ursula is accused of witchcraft, she must expose this villain to save herself from the hangman’s noose. Fans of Elizabethan historicals will be richly rewarded.

August 1, 2012
Even the sister of a monarch is in trouble when she's accused of witchcraft. Thrice-married Ursula Blanchard is the illegitimate sister of and former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I. The queen has not hesitated to use Ursula's skills as a spy in the past. But now Ursula is retired quietly in the country and planning the wedding of her daughter when she receives a threatening letter from the exiled Countess of Northumberland, who hates her for helping to unravel the treasonous plot that caused her downfall. Ursula ignores the letter, until suddenly a series of misfortunes befall her household, and she's falsely accused as a witch. Two of her neighbors have feuded for generations, and either one of them could plausibly be behind her troubles. An outbreak of smallpox, accusations against a servant who had once been convicted as a witch and books on witchcraft found in the home of some friends are evidence enough to persuade a zealous sheriff to investigate. Ursula and her longtime comrade in spying, Roger Brockley, put themselves in a dangerous position as they attempt to show that Ursula has been set up by a vengeful but unknown enemy. The latest in Buckley's always-entertaining series (Queen Without a Crown, 2012, etc.) combines the obligatory historical tidbits with an adventurous mystery.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2012

For your Tudor enthusiasts, grab Buckley's tenth title featuring Ursula Blanchard (after Queen Without a Crown). An old nemesis accuses Ursula of witchcraft, and treachery abounds. [See Prepub Alert, 4/2/12.]

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2012
Ursula Blanchard, sometime spy and loyal lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I, returns in her tenth adventure. Preoccupied with preparations for her daughter's wedding, Ursula is caught off guard by a missive from an old nemesis. After receiving the ominous letter from Anne Percy, the exiled countess of Northumberland and one of the primary architects of the Northern Rebellion against the queen, Ursula is inexplicably ensnared in a frenzied witch hunt. It appears that Anne Percy has enlisted the services of a local agent, but who is it, and just how far is that agent willing to go to discredit and destroy Ursula? Buckley deftly immerses the plot and the characters in the history, politics, and religion of the era by using the Elizabethan witch hunts as the backdrop for the central mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)