To Shield the Queen

Ursula is a recent widow who is sent to the court of Elizabeth I. In a short time, she is caught up in court life and intrigue as she tries to find who killed the very woman she was to protect. Narrator Nadia May is excellent as she takes on the royal entourage, but she is extra charming portraying Ursula as a clever, witty, sharp-tongued woman who has an eye for the gentlemen! The characters sparkle as May imbues them with the language and speaking manner of a significant and distinctive historical period. S.G.B. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

November 3, 1997
Buckley makes use of some happily anachronistic narration in a lively mystery series kickoff set in 1560. Impoverished but well-born, Ursula Blanchard is blessed not only with the sharp tongue and quick wit characteristic of Elizabethan England but also with a very modern self-awareness. Ursula, newly widowed at 26, also has enough skills--both literary and mathematical--to impress her majesty, Elizabeth I, into taking her on as a lady-in-waiting. Can the young queen, 18 months into her reign, control the schemers and plotters, the sowers of religious dissent and the scandalmongers who permeate her court? To dispel rumors of an unsuitable alliance with her master of horse, Robin Dudley, and to assure the court that she means his ailing young wife no harm, the queen sends Ursula herself to care for the woman. Despite Ursula's vigilance, Amy Dudley dies under suspicious circumstances. Was she murdered? Ursula and her two loyal but sometimes exasperating servants, after some haphazard but fruitful sleuthing, uncover a complex plot that hints at treason. In her first mystery, former journalist and editor Buckley shows a deft hand with strong characterization and creates a plot that spins merrily and wickedly through palace, manor house and intensely beautiful countryside. Ursula is a force to be reckoned with--audacious, intensely loyal and beguiling. Her relationship with the young queen is just one of the elements that make this a promising series debut.