Queen Without a Crown

December 5, 2011
At the start of Buckley’s solid ninth Elizabethan historical (after 2004’s The Siren Queen), Mark Easton, a messenger, brings news to Elizabeth I about a plot to free Mary, queen of Scots, from captivity in England. Easton also has a personal request for Ursula Stannard (formerly Blanchard), lady-in-waiting to her half-sister, Elizabeth, and retired spy. More than 20 years earlier, Easton’s father, Gervase, was suspected of tampering with the food of a womanizer with designs on Easton’s mother. Gervase committed suicide after coming under suspicion, but left a letter swearing his innocence of the crime that Easton just happened upon. Ursula agrees to help Easton clear his father’s name, but she has an uphill battle, as few of the original witnesses are still alive. Readers not expecting Buckley to equal the quality of a Rory Clements or C.J. Sansom will be satisfied.

January 1, 2012
A Lady of the Bedchamber for Queen Elizabeth I wishes to give up her role as a spy, but circumstances force her back into action. Ursula Blanchard has married for the third time. But her newfound happiness is threatened by the financial dealings of Hugh Stannard, her latest husband. Then Mark Easton comes to her begging for help. His beloved's family refuses her permission to marry him because of his father Gervase, who's been widely considered a murderer ever since he committed suicide. Bolstered by generous funding from Mark, Ursula starts to investigate the long-ago poisoning of a rival for the affections of Mark's mother. In the meantime, the Queen is not about to let Ursula, who is her bastard half sister, forget her obligations at a time when Elizabeth's enemies in Scotland and the north country are looking for ways to replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. Their interests happily coincide when Ursula's search for a portrait that may help to prove Gervase innocent takes her to the very area where Elizabeth wants her to investigate traitors. Ursula and her loyal escort travel through a bitter-cold winter landscape to homes that may house both traitors and the elusive portrait. Fans of Buckley's long string of clever historical suspensers featuring the resourceful Ursula (The Siren Queen, 2004, etc.) won't be disappointed.

(COPYRIGHT (2012) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2012

Burned out on secret-agent missions assigned by Queen Elizabeth I, spy and lady-in-waiting Ursula Blanchard (The Siren Queen), nonetheless attacks two new cases with verve. It is November 1569, and the Scots are cooking up trouble. Elizabeth wants Ursula to sniff out possible traitors by visiting targeted sites near the border. The queen knows Ursula is already working on a case for a young royal messenger named Mark, who is desperately in love and needs to clear his late father's name. The father was wrongfully accused of a poisoning death some 20 years ago, and only proof of innocence will satisfy the parents of Mark's intended. Surprisingly, Ursula gets a break in this cold case from a portrait artist. If Ursula can find the portrait of Mark's father, she might save Mark from a broken heart. Since the painting is probably in a home near the Scottish border, she combines her two missions. Before long, the clever and gutsy Ursula is riding for her life. VERDICT Abundant foreshadowing, exciting action, and well-drawn characters make Buckley's ninth entry in her romantic suspense series stand tall. Readers might also enjoy Peg Herring's series featuring a younger Elizabeth. For female-led intrigue from other time periods, also consider Miriam Grace Monfredo or Carol K. Carr.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2012
Ursula Blanchard, lady-in-waiting and spy extraordinaire, returns in a new Elizabethan mystery steeped in suspense and historical detail. In addition to her duties as a Lady of the Bedchamber to her half sister, Queen Elizabeth, she also undertakes certain delicate missions for the Crown. Despite her marriage to Hugh Stannard, there is no escaping into private life for Ursula. On assignment in the north to ferret out a group of rebel noblemen intent on rescuing and reinstating the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, she is also privately commissioned by Mark Easton, Lord Sussex's envoy, to solve a 20-year-old murder. As Ursula delves deep into the past to solve a tricky cold case, political passions in the present threaten to boil over. The worthy Ursula is an estimable heroine, and Buckley's confident mastery of sixteenth-century British history lends an air of authenticity to her cleverly spun adventures.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)