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To Seize a Queen

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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks

Queen Elizabeth's half-sister and secret agent Ursula Stannard takes on a dangerous new mission involving mysterious disappearances and murder in Cornwall in this gripping Tudor mystery.


1594. Ursula Stannard is attending on her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth, when she receives an urgent summons from Sir Robert Cecil. Cornishman Master Roskilly was fished out of the sea by Sir Francis Godolphin, and has a shocking tale of being snatched by pirates and put on a slave vessel to Constantinople before his audacious escape.

And he's not the only one. . . Folk in Cornwall are mysteriously disappearing. But why are only exceptional or unusual individuals being kidnapped, and could there be a link to two recent murders?

With the queen's annual progress stalled, Ursula agrees to go undercover to unmask those responsible, knowing that Queen Elizabeth would be the most prized captive of all . . .


Fans of S.J. Parris, C.J. Sansom and Rory Clements won't want to miss this compelling, impeccably researched Tudor mystery.

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    • Kirkus

      April 1, 2024
      The disappearance of a number of innocuous people from Cornwall turns out to be part of a much larger conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth I. Ursula Stannard, Elizabeth's illegitimate half-sister, has a relationship with the queen that's involved her in spying over the course of many years. The thrice-married Ursula, now almost 60, is a mother who owns several lovely properties and still serves the monarch. Arriving to attend Elizabeth at Hampton Court with her longtime servant Brockley and his wife, Dale, Ursula is requested by spymaster Sir Robert Cecil to undertake what may be a dangerous mission. An itinerant minstrel who's escaped after being kidnapped by corsairs headed for Constantinople reports that others aboard the ship with him--including a farming family, a scholar, and a set of young twins--may not have been so lucky. Apparently, someone in Cornwall is taking orders for certain types of people, abducting them, and shipping them on. Sent to an empty house on the Lizard peninsula belonging to the missing scholar, Ursula poses as widowed Catherine Archer, bringing Dale, Brockley, and Christopher Spelton, another spy she's worked with before, to poke around. The furious queen had planned to make a royal tour of Cornwall, but now that's too dangerous an undertaking. Cornwall has a long history of corsairs and shipwreckers involving some of its most powerful families. Ursula and her helpers learn enough to put themselves in serious danger before they can set a trap for the kidnappers. One of the most exciting adventures of the queen's spy.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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  • English

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