Book review - "The Fugitive Queen" by Fiona Buckley

I found The Fugitive Queen by Fiona Buckley (pen name for Valerie Anand) to be one of her better novels.  This is her seventh in the series featuring Elizabethan sleuth Ursula Faldene Blanchard de la Roche Stannard.  She’s on her third husband and only in her early 30’s. 

In this story, the queen in the title refers to Mary, Queen of Scots, who has made it to England, making her cousin Elizabeth I very uneasy.  Ursula is “asked” by Queen Elizabeth to make a journey to Tyesdale, a parcel of land owned by Robert Dudley.  He is giving it go Ursula’s ward Penelope Mason as a dowry so she can attract a good husband.  Pen is not a looker by any means so finding a male suitor isn’t going to be easy. 

Ursula isn’t fooled since she is aware that the manor is close to Bolton, where Mary is housed.    She is instructed to give a private message to Mary from Elizabeth, but the queen’s man Cecil also wants her to find out if Mary had anything to do with the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley.  As in earlier novels, she knows she’s being tricked once again and has no choice to obey her queen.

This book reads more like an action novel rather than a mystery but it is a refreshing read.  There is plenty of intrigue to go around.  There are plots of treason, kidnapping, and revenge.  Imagine a spy story set in Elizabethan times. 

I’m not aware of the circumstances behind Mary’s bid to overthrow her cousin and assume the throne of England, as well as France and Scotland.  The Fugitive Queen is a work of fiction but seems as though it could be fact and it is fun and gives you a taste of life in late 1500’s England.