Rating: 
Summary: A few low points, but...
Review: ....if you can overlook the modern language (did Elizabethans really use pounds and ounces as units of measurement?) and a rather weakly described ending (we really would have liked to see how enraged Elizabeth became over this plot, or how much the culprits had to suffer!), this is still a fine read!
Rating: 
Summary: Some mystery and some history .
Review: I am an avid mystery fan and a lover of Tudor history, so naturally when a book that combines the two comes out I snatch it up. I'm usually disappointed, because there is not enough of either. But this book, while not perfect, had enough of both to satisfy me. This is the first book in this series that I have read. I won't go over the plot, as others have already covered it. I found the heroine, Ursula Stannard, to be believable and sympathetic. The history was sound and the plot plausible (if not riveting). I enjoyed the depiction of life and customs in 1568, both at court and in the north. For all that, I had the entire solution figured out very early on. I think that many historical mystery writers spend so much time "setting the scene" that they ignore the machinations necessary for a really good mystery. So while I enjoyed the first half of the book alot, the last half lagged.
Rating:
Summary: A Historical narrative which happens to have a mystery!
Review: I have read and enjoyed some historical fiction in this period, particularly the Chronicles of Lymond by Dorothy Dunnett, but generally am skeptical of mysteries. So often mystery writers spend a lot of energy deliberately misleading the reader and the payoff ("Oh, it was a red herring") leads to frustration at time wasted. Not in this case. I picked up this book without realizing it was one in a series and enjoyed it so much I went back and read the first novel (and will be making my way through the rest). The way this book is written, it seems more like a historical novel whose main character is reluctantly involved in a mystery, than a book in which the mystery is the point. Ursula Blanchard is an engaging, strong, sympathetic woman, and her point of view is sensible and shrewd. All of the minor characters are fully drawn-- including poor man-crazy, plain Penelope who keeps getting into trouble through her romantic nature. I knew this book was going to be good when Penelope's embarassing crush on the music teacher was never explained away-- it really WAS a poor teenage crush (so often something like this would be used as a red herring in which the music teacher was involved in a plot too etc. etc.) Great sense of menace once Ursula gets to the countryside, but nobody is a cardboard villain. I read this after having completed a disappointing collection of mystery short stories called "Much Ado about Murder," so Buckley's winning me over is even more impressive as I was skeptical that merely setting something in a historical period could make the story interesting... and of course, it isn't the merely the period that's interesting. Buckley is a terrific storyteller and Ursual is a wonderful narrator. Really enjoyable in every respect!
Rating:
Summary: A Historical narrative which happens to have a mystery!
Review: I have read and enjoyed some historical fiction in this period, particularly the Chronicles of Lymond by Dorothy Dunnett, but generally am skeptical of mysteries. So often mystery writers spend a lot of energy deliberately misleading the reader and the payoff ("Oh, it was a red herring") leads to frustration at time wasted. Not in this case. I picked up this book without realizing it was one in a series and enjoyed it so much I went back and read the first novel (and will be making my way through the rest). The way this book is written, it seems more like a historical novel whose main character is reluctantly involved in a mystery, than a book in which the mystery is the point. Ursula Blanchard is an engaging, strong, sympathetic woman, and her point of view is sensible and shrewd. All of the minor characters are fully drawn-- including poor man-crazy, plain Penelope who keeps getting into trouble through her romantic nature. I knew this book was going to be good when Penelope's embarassing crush on the music teacher was never explained away-- it really WAS a poor teenage crush (so often something like this would be used as a red herring in which the music teacher was involved in a plot too etc. etc.) Great sense of menace once Ursula gets to the countryside, but nobody is a cardboard villain. I read this after having completed a disappointing collection of mystery short stories called "Much Ado about Murder," so Buckley's winning me over is even more impressive as I was skeptical that merely setting something in a historical period could make the story interesting... and of course, it isn't the merely the period that's interesting. Buckley is a terrific storyteller and Ursual is a wonderful narrator. Really enjoyable in every respect!
Rating:
Summary: strong Elizabethan mystery
Review: It's been three years since Ursula Blanchard married Hugh Stannard, but in spite of his being twenty years her senior, it has been a peaceful time for the baseborn sister of Queen Elizabeth I. When Hugh and Ursula are summoned to court to collect her wayward wad, the queen and sir Cecil have a job for the former spy to perform. Mary, Queen of Scotts, has escaped her Scottish prison and sought refuge in England. She is now half guest and half prisoner and the Scottish regent is seeking an inquiry into whether Mary is guilty of murdering her husband. The queen and her accuser want Ursula to find out the truth of the matter and offer Ursula's ward a dowry with an estate that is next door to where Mary is being held. After much trouble, they finally arrive at the Yorkshire estate of Tyesdale where Ursula becomes embroiled in a plot to free Mary when her supporters kidnap her ward. Although Ursula has been content in the three years away from court and playing spy for her half-sister, she feels her blood stir as she once again becomes involved in politics and intrigue. She is an independent clever woman in an age when females were supposed to be weak and submissive. Readers will admire her strengths and her love for her child but they will care for the woman who lives life on her own terms. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: strong Elizabethan mystery
Review: It's been three years since Ursula Blanchard married Hugh Stannard, but in spite of his being twenty years her senior, it has been a peaceful time for the baseborn sister of Queen Elizabeth I. When Hugh and Ursula are summoned to court to collect her wayward wad, the queen and sir Cecil have a job for the former spy to perform. Mary, Queen of Scotts, has escaped her Scottish prison and sought refuge in England. She is now half guest and half prisoner and the Scottish regent is seeking an inquiry into whether Mary is guilty of murdering her husband. The queen and her accuser want Ursula to find out the truth of the matter and offer Ursula's ward a dowry with an estate that is next door to where Mary is being held. After much trouble, they finally arrive at the Yorkshire estate of Tyesdale where Ursula becomes embroiled in a plot to free Mary when her supporters kidnap her ward. Although Ursula has been content in the three years away from court and playing spy for her half-sister, she feels her blood stir as she once again becomes involved in politics and intrigue. She is an independent clever woman in an age when females were supposed to be weak and submissive. Readers will admire her strengths and her love for her child but they will care for the woman who lives life on her own terms. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: AN ELIZABETHAN SUCCESS
Review: Since QUEEN OF AMBITION, the last Buckley mystery I reviewed, Ursula Blanchard has given up spying for her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth, married Hugh Stannard, and settled into a contented retirement far from court. The queen and her chief minister, William Cecil, recall Ursula to active duty as THE FUGITIVE QUEEN opens. The lure is the gift of a dowry estate in Yorkshire for her ward, Penelope Mason. In return Ursula is to carry a personal message from Elizabeth to Mary of Scotland, who is imprisioned in Bolton Castle near Penelope's new property. Cecil also wants her to ascertain the extent of Mary's involvement in the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley. What seems at first to be a straightforward mission quickly gathers complications of kidnapping, murder, and conspiracy. Ursula, her daughter Meg, and Penelope are all at grave risk before the story's conclusion. I am once again impressed by Buckley's skill at recreating Elizabethan society -- this time in rural Yorkshire where the Roman religion still has many secret adherents. She feeds the reader, almost unnoticed, the historical context of Mary of Scotland's fall from queenship to troublesome prisoner. Ursula is an effective secret agent without overstepping the constraints her gender and her status would realistically have put upon her. This is historical mystery-writing of a very high order.
My only niggle with the plot is that Buckley, at two critical junctures, has groups of people who are trying to escape detection in the dead of night do so on horseback. In the quiet of the 16th century countryside, the creak and jingle of horsemen would cary quite a distance and alert watchers would feel the vibration hooves striking firm ground even further. One would travel on foot if escaping notice was of primary importance.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Ursula Blanchard mysteries.
Review: The Fugitive Queen has to be one of the best Ursula Blanchard mysteries. Like its predecessors, it is a real page turner that keeps you glued to the edge of your seat. I particularly like the fact that we get to see more of her young daughter, Meg, as well as a better glimpse of her new husband, Hugh Stannard. For that matter, it is refreshing that finally Ursula has found a man worthy of her. Her second husband, Mathew de la Roche, was an example of a man who never understood his wife and, as much as he may have loved her, he was totally inadequate to make her happy. I never understood how she stuck with him for so long. At any rate, the plot is very solid and the situations are much more realistic than usual. Ms. Buckley has done her research well. If you are someone who wishes to learn more about life in England in the late 16th Century, the Blanchard series are for you. I particularly like the way that the whole Mary Stuart conflict has been narrated, as it gives you a more human portrait of the people involved as opposed to that of the popular belief. All in all, it is a book that I recommend highly.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Ursula Blanchard mysteries.
Review: The Fugitive Queen has to be one of the best Ursula Blanchard mysteries. Like its predecessors, it is a real page turner that keeps you glued to the edge of your seat. I particularly like the fact that we get to see more of her young daughter, Meg, as well as a better glimpse of her new husband, Hugh Stannard. For that matter, it is refreshing that finally Ursula has found a man worthy of her. Her second husband, Mathew de la Roche, was an example of a man who never understood his wife and, as much as he may have loved her, he was totally inadequate to make her happy. I never understood how she stuck with him for so long. At any rate, the plot is very solid and the situations are much more realistic than usual. Ms. Buckley has done her research well. If you are someone who wishes to learn more about life in England in the late 16th Century, the Blanchard series are for you. I particularly like the way that the whole Mary Stuart conflict has been narrated, as it gives you a more human portrait of the people involved as opposed to that of the popular belief. All in all, it is a book that I recommend highly.
Rating:
Summary: Great blend of fact and fiction
Review: This is the latest in an excellent series of mysteries set in England during the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth. The writer shares a comprehensive understanding of the uneasy political and religious dynamics of the time, as well as life at court and the (very different) life in every-day Elizabethan England. The plot is well designed and carried through and the characters are well-drawn and memorable. I enjoy the fact that the protagonist is a woman and the viewpoint is feminine rather than masculine. It's all too easy, when writing historical fiction, to gravitate to the masculine, with the hero mounting his steed and dashing off in all directions, with exciting chases and plenty of swashbuckling fights and battles. You'll find a little of that here, but mostly you'll find a woman just trying to do her best for her susceptible young relative and for her queen. It's just that she has an exciting time doing it. Blending historical fact with dramatic and readable fiction is no easy task but the writer accomplishes it beautifully in this book. You feel the sad magnetism of Mary, Queen of Scots and the dedication and frustration of Sir Francis Knollys, her host and/or jailer. I found this to be a really good read from a writer who really understands this period in history.
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