"Buckley's storied heroine (A Perilous Alliance, 2015, etc.) has all too little chance to prove herself in her 14th adventure: too many of the critical scenes are either narrated to her or take place offstage."
A spy in skirts serves in Her Majesty's secret service, Tudor style.
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"Fans of Buckley's Elizabethan spy mysteries (A Traitor's Tears, 2014, etc.) had better prepare for this novel's leisurely pace and more decorous tension."
"The latest in Buckley's always-entertaining series (Queen Without a Crown, 2012, etc.) combines the obligatory historical tidbits with an adventurous mystery."
Even the sister of a monarch is in trouble when she's accused of witchcraft.
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"Fans of Buckley's long string of clever historical suspensers featuring the resourceful Ursula (The Siren Queen, 2004, etc.) won't be disappointed."
A Lady of the Bedchamber for Queen Elizabeth I wishes to give up her role as a spy, but circumstances force her back into action.
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"Political conspiracy and personal betrayal make this a strong outing, although Ursula's extended family is growing hard to seat comfortably in one novel."
Like her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I, Mistress Ursula Blanchard Stannard (The Fugitive Queen, 2003, etc.) finds it hard to escape the evil influence of Mary, Queen of Scots.
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"Through the eyes of Ursula, a woman both compassionate and ruthless, Buckley effectively dramatizes the tangled personal and political obligations of the Elizabethan court. A welcome seventh outing."
"Ursula (Queen of Ambition, 2002, etc.) continues to tack as skillfully as ever between loyalties to her ruler and her family—a dramatic strength this sixth dose of Elizabethan realpolitik brings into especially sharp relief."
Recently widowed Ursula Blanchard, retired, as she thinks, from the service of Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, Sir William Cecil, has never liked the uncle and aunt who brought her up.
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"Buckley describes vividly the difficulties of people living and competing with each other in Elizabethan England, though even Machiavelli might object to her convoluted plot."
Queen Elizabeth I will be soon arriving in Cambridge on a Royal Progress, and as part of the festivities, students want to stage a mock kidnapping attempt.
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"A banquet for history buffs, but others will need the author's elegant style to hold them to the end."
Once again Ursula Blanchard, now married to Matthew de la Roche and living in France, is on a mission, reluctantly, to serve Queen Elizabeth and her Secretary of State Sir William Cecil (The Doublet Affair, 1998, etc.).
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"Ursula is the essence of iron cloaked in velvet—a heroine to reckon with."
An accomplished debut set in 1560 at the Court of Queen Elizabeth I. Impoverished young widow Ursula Blanchard, whose mother had served Queen Elizabeth's mother, has agreed to join Elizabeth's Ladies of the Presence Chamber.
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