Queen Without a Crown
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
"Ursula Blanchard, lady-in-waiting and spy extraordinaire, returns in a new Elizabethan mystery steeped in suspense and historical detail." —Booklist
November, 1569: Happily married to her third husband, Hugh Stannard, Ursula Blanchard is hoping to give up her undercover work for Queen Elizabeth l in order to enjoy domestic bliss. But when Hugh unwittingly endangers possession of his ancestral home, Ursula is forced to take on a seemingly hopeless, but handsomely paid, private assignment—which the queen considers the perfect cover for a covert investigation into a group of rebel barons plotting to put Mary, Queen of Scots back on the English throne . . .
"Ursula is the essence of iron cloaked in velvet—a heroine to reckon with." —Kirkus Reviews
"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." —Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
