From Amazon.com
The novel begins as Ursula Blanchard, waiting woman to Queen Elizabeth I, is having a lesson in picking locks under the watchful eye of her majesty's secretary of state. An unusual lesson indeed for a respectable woman of the court, but Blanchard is no ordinary lady in waiting. She does have the proper antecedents for her place, but an eye and an ear for suspicious dealings helps her to earn additional income. She is a spy, paid to seek out traitorous deeds. In
The Doublet Affair, Lord Burleigh sends her to watch some erstwhile friends whose dealings have become more suspicious than keeping the odd Catholic priest under their roof. The plot is enriched by Ursula's own ambivalence about her role: not only does she have a fondness for the family under suspicion, she longs to leave court entirely to join her French husband.
The central mystery is an appropriate one for the period. There are the usual mysterious deaths as well as hints of treachery against the crown. Indeed, one of Fiona Buckley's strengths is her historical appreciation for the fact that Elizabeth, despite her longevity, was never completely secure on the throne; Catholic plots and other schemes of usurpation abounded. Buckley's weakness is her certainty (and Ursula's) that Elizabeth was gentler in religious persecution than her sister. Regardless, Buckley's imaginative sense of quotidian life in Elizabethan England is delightful, and the mystery reaches a satisfying conclusion--with Ursula's lock picks put to good use.
Fiona Buckley is a pseudonym for an established author venturing into historical whodunits. The Doublet Affair follows her first effort, To Shield the Queen. --K. Crouch
From Publishers Weekly
Elizabethan sleuth Ursula Blanchard returns in a worthy follow-up to To Shield the Queen (1997). Ursula, lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I, is the only female spy employed by the queen's right-hand man, William Cecil. A widow with a small daughter, she has been forced into a clandestine marriage with Catholic aristocrat Matthew de la Roche, who has escaped the Protestant Elizabeth's clutches and returned to France. Ursula is requested by the queen and Cecil to retire temporarily from court and to stay?and spy?at the home of Leonard and Ann Mason, who are suspected of harboring sympathies for the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots. Working undercover as a governess, Ursula seeks to gather information on a conspiracy that may involve a London clockmaker and the Masons' tutor. She is helped significantly by her married servants, Fern Dale and Roger Brockley, whose homespun wholesomeness provides a nice foil to the intrigues of the bluebloods who drive the tale. Witty and courageous, Ursula finds her life threatened but forges on, unraveling the conspiracy and, ultimately, making a fateful decision regarding her future. Once again, Buckley pens an intricate tale rich in period detail and vivid characters. Among writers of historical mysteries, she stands out for the attention and skill she brings not only to suspenseful plotting but to the setting that supports it.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
