Book review - "The Siren Queen" by Fiona Buckley

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.

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.

Queen's Ransom by Fiona Buckley

The third appearance of Ursula Blanchard, Lady of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I, reads more as an action/suspense novel than a mystery/whodunit. Mistress Blanchard desperately wants to get away from the intrigue and dangers of court for a while. Queen Elizabeth, wanting to help her escape, sends her on a mission into France, a country on the verge of civil war. She gives Ursula a message to deliver to Queen Caroline, offering assistance and arbitration if war breaks out.

Ursula is accompanied by her former father-in-law, who is traveling to France to pick up his ward. Ursula has never gotten along with the father of her first husband Gerald and he has yet to forgive his son for marrying her.

The path they take through the country is meandering and takes time with back-tracking to cater to the young ward's whims. She is Helene, a sixteen-year old shrew, who claims she aspires only to be a nun. Ursula is not convinced, but she uses the girl's demands as a cover to contact her estranged second husband, Matthew de la Roche, a wanted man in England but living nearby in France. They manage to spend a few passionate hours together before the inn is set on fire. She helps Matthew escape and soon finds out that the men in her own traveling party were responsible for the arson. They were using her as bait to flush de la Roche out.

Seething with fury, she presses forward to Paris and delivers Elizabeth's message to Catherine. Before she can turn towards home, her own maid-servant is arrested and accused of plotting to poison Queen Caroline. To free Dale from the French prison and certain execution, Ursula races to Antwerp to find a treasure hidden two years earlier by her first husband. It is a large enough treasure to ransom a queen.

A merchantman with murderous Turks on his trail joined the group while on its way to Paris and now accompanies Ursula to Antwerp. With her intelligence and wit and his connections and worldliness, they outwit Turkish assassins and French mercenaries loyal to Catherine, bent on getting the treasure for themselves.

Back in the French Court, a meeting with an Englishman also carrying a message from Elizabeth to Catherine reveals just how deeply she has been betrayed by her own queen, making her decision about staying with her husband crystal clear.

In "Queen's Ransom", Ursula is not called upon to solve mysterious murders by person or persons unknown, rather to pierce the veils of secrecy, conspiracy and treachery to prevent her servant from being burned at the stake and to protect her husband from the queen's court from arresting him and taking him back to England. She finds herself surrounded by betrayal from all directions.

Fortunately, this novel is kept moving as Ursula travels to Paris, Antwerp and back to Paris, facing numerous and exciting adventures along the way. The story does not get bogged down while the reader waits for Ursula to interview suspects and search for clues. Her adventures keep up a fast pace and the result is an exciting page turner. Ursula Blanchard is the Elizabethan Renaissance equivalent of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan.

(previously published on ezinearticles.com)