After the events of The
Fugitive Queen, Ursula Blanchard de la Roche Stannard is still caught up in
the conspiracies to put Mary Stuart on the throne of Scotland and eventually
that of England as well. In The Siren
Queen, Ursula and her current husband are contacted by the duke of Norfolk,
wanting to betroth a young man in his employee to Ursula’s daughter Meg, who is
not yet fourteen. Ursula and Hugh decide
to see what the duke has to offer.
Ursula immediately dislikes the young man and plans to depart,
but a messenger of the duke is stabbed as he is trying to deliver documents to
the north. Then another young man, a
servant, is brutally murdered and hung up on a meat hook. Like it nor not, Ursula is urged by Elizabeth’s
Secretary of State Cecil Williams to find out why the men were killed. She uncovers coded messages being passed
between Norfolk and the conspirators with Mary.
Thrown into this mix is Ursula’s woman Gladys, who, despite
Ursula’s efforts to keep her clean and groomed, still manages to get accused of
witchcraft. Meg, being the sulky teenager,
is in love with Edward Dean, the man Norfolk wants to betroth her to.
As usual, Ursula engages in a lot of spying, eavesdropping
and intercepting encoded messages to help Cecil get back in Elizabeth’s good
graces. She even has to speak to the
Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley, one of the queen’s favorites.
The ending is a little predictable but it does have some
exciting moments. It isn’t on the level
as The Fugitive Queen as intrigue,
but The Siren Queen does have more of
the whodunit element.
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