A Deadly Betrothal (Ursula Blanchard Series #15)

by Fiona Buckley

Overview

Queen Elizabeth’s proposed engagement to a Catholic Duke is causing turmoil throughout the kingdom in the gripping new Ursula Blanchard mystery.



July, 1579. Called upon to help a family friend who is horrified at the return of her errant husband after an absence of thirty years, little does Ursula realize that her involvement in the Harrison family’s domestic dramas will lead to a case of cold-blooded murder.



Matters become even more complicated when Ursula is summoned to court to assist in negotiations for Queen Elizabeth’s possible engagement to the Duke of Alençon. The proposed marriage between the queen and a French Catholic twenty years her junior is causing unrest throughout the kingdom. There are many who oppose the match – but would someone kill in order to prevent it?



Tensions increase when a prominent nobleman is accused of murder. Ursula is convinced the man is innocent – but can she prove it?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780290973
Publisher:	Severn House Publishers
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Series:	Ursula Blanchard Series , #15
Edition description:	First World Publication
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Fiona Buckley is the author of the Ursula Blanchard mysteries. Under her real name, Valerie Anand, she is the author of numerous historical novels including the much-loved Bridges Over Time series. Brought up in London, she now lives in Surrey.

Editorial Reviews

06/26/2017
Ursula Blanchard, the secret half-sister of Elizabeth I, struggles to deal with darkening conspiracies both at home and at Hampton Court, in Buckley’s dramatic 15th Tudor mystery (after 2016’s Heretic’s Creed). In her last outing, Ursula faced danger in an eerie, snowbound religious house whose female residents possessed deadly secrets. This story may lack its predecessor’s chilling atmosphere, but the narrative’s focus on Elizabethan politics delivers a jolt of excitement in its depiction of the key players in the 1570s court. Buckley paints a sympathetic portrait of Elizabeth, a queen in her mid-40s, pressured to marry a much younger man for the sake of the country and consumed by terror at the prospect of sex and pregnancy. As for the mystery, when a teenage son of a friend disappears and is found murdered, Ursula’s probing begins, with the death of a nobleman raising the stakes. The action builds to a satisfying conclusion. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Buckley continues to deliver intelligent and multilayered historical mysteries"

Booklist

"Buckley continues to deliver intelligent and multilayered historical mysteries"

Booklist

2017-06-06
Being the illegitimate sister of Queen Elizabeth I once again puts a widow in danger.Tangled family relationships press Ursula Stannard (Heretic's Creed, 2016, etc.) to help her ward Kate Ferguson's husband Eric Lake's half brother George Harrison's wife, Marjorie, who's a friend of Ursula's Aunt Tabitha. George had run off with a wealthy woman more than 30 years before but now, down on his luck, has returned to batten on Marjorie, who has no choice but to take him in. Meanwhile, Edmund, the abusive husband of Marjorie's sister-in-law Lisa, now claims that her twin children are not his. A twisted mess involving money will lead to more than one murder. Even more tricky for Ursula is a summons from her half sister, Elizabeth, who's contemplating marriage to the Duke of Alençon, a union that would bring a useful alliance with France but would put the queen, who's not quite past childbearing age, in a very dangerous position should she become pregnant. The queen's advisers are split over the prospect of her marriage, and the country as a whole is against her marrying a papist, but Elizabeth is attracted to the Duke, who, though physically unappealing, is bright and amusing. Ursula, who's often worked as a spy for Lord Burghley and Sir Francis Walsingham, is this time asked only to collect letters from a spy in France and pass them on. As they travel between several of Elizabeth's palaces and the homes of the Harrison family, Ursula and her trusted servants, Brockley and Dale, little suspect that the problems of the two families may have a common denominator. Another fascinating look at Elizabethan life that hinges on a complex mystery.

Kirkus Reviews