Queen Elizabeth I

To Shield the Queen (1998)
Fiona Buckley
Set in Queen Elizabeth I's court, this compelling historical debut mystery introduces Ursula Blanchard, a widowed young mother who has become lady-in-waiting to the queen. In To Shield the Queen, Ursula finds herself at the center of a plot that could disgrace and threaten Her Majesty. Other books in the series include The Doublet Affair (1999), Queen's Ransom (2000), To Ruin a Queen (2001), Queen of Ambition (2002), A Pawn for a Queen (2002) and The Fugitive Queen (2003).

Face Down upon an Herbal (2000)
Kathy Lynn Emerson
After making her sleuthing debut in Face Down in the Marrowbone Pie, herbalist Susanna is back – ordered by Queen Elizabeth to complete a new book on botanical decorations. She realizes there is more to the royal request when a houseguest is found murdered – face down upon the very book she authored. Other books in the series include Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie (1997), Face Down among the Winchester Geese (1999), Face Down Beneath the Eleanor Cross (2001), Face Down under the Wych Elm (2002), Face Down across the Western Sea (2002) and Face Down before the Rebel Hooves (2003).

The Firedrake's Eye (1998)
Patricia Finney
Brilliantly written in language eerily reminiscent of 16th-century England and filled with dazzling color and drama, Firedrake's Eye concerns a meticulously constructed plot to kill Queen Elizabeth I. Finney transports the reader back in time to the dirty, dangerous underbelly of 1583 London, evoking the danger and treachery of Tudor politics.

Unicorn's Blood (1999)
Patricia Finney
Facing an array of international foes and torn internally by religious strife, England finds that its safety depends more than ever on a slight woman of exceptional intellectual brilliance, a master of realpolitik – Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, Gloriana. Elizabeth is revered like a goddess, her stature a shrewd political tool designed to hold her people together. And it's about to be destroyed by a dark revelation from a hidden part of her past.

The Poyson Garden (1999)
Karen Harper
Living in exile in the English countryside, the 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth awaits her fate during the waning years of her ill and childless half-sister's reign. Little does Elizabeth know that in the autumn of 1558, she will be called upon to explore not only England's rural heartland, but also her own heart. At great risk to her person and her nation's future, she plunges herself into an investigation of a multiple murder, where she might very well become a master poisoner's next victim. Other books in the series include The Tidal Poole (2000), The Twylight Tower (2001), The Queene's Cure (2002) and The Thorne Maze (2003).

This Scepter'd Isle (2004)
Mercedes Lackey and Robert Gellis
At the height of the reign of King Henry VIII, another shadow realm exists in England – as the courts of the Seleighe and Unseleighe sidhe involve themselves in their own politics as well as those of the mortal world. Veteran authors Lackey and Gellis demonstrate their flair for period fantasy and romance in this well-rounded tale, complete with witchery and the magic of the fair folk.

The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn (1997)
Robin Maxwell
Just as the newly crowned Elizabeth I is about to become amorously involved with a power-hungry nobleman, an old friend of her mother's appears, shriveled and decrepit, bearing a tome written in the hand of the new queen's mother, Anne Boleyn. The friend had promised Anne that she would deliver the diary to Elizabeth when she reached maturity. Elizabeth thus becomes acquainted with the mother she had never really known at precisely the moment when she most needs a mother's advice. Painting vicious court intrigue, national and international politics and the role of the Reformation, Maxwell brings not only the two queens but all of bloody Tudor England vividly to life. Other books by Robin Maxwell about Elizabeth include The Queen's Bastard (1999), Virgin (2001) and The Wild Irish (2003).

(List created 8/04)