The Fatal Fashione (Elizabeth I Mysteries, Book 8) [Hardcover]

Ms. Karen Harper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 2005

Elizabethan London teems with life and deadly deeds as its queen struggles to solve a woman's murder by delving into a girl's memories. At stake are Elizabeth Tudor's right to rule---and her very life.

 

In the eighth year of the young queen's reign, England is awash in fads. Tobacco is introduced from the New World and so is chocolate, which is secretly smuggled from Spain. Black garments become the rage and are beautifully set off by Elizabeth's style of flaunting pearls. Starch, introduced from the Netherlands, is worth its weigh in gold after Her Majesty promotes the wearing of huge ruffs. IN addition, Sir Thomas Gresham, the queen's wealthy financial advisor, begins to build the huge mercantile exchange that will become England's first shopping mall.

 

Unfortunately for the queen and her court, adultery, revenge, and murder never go out of style. When the royal starcher is drowned and a young witness to the villainy is so shocked that she loses her memory, the queen and her coterie set out to solve the crime. If the truth does not prevail, Elizabeth might lose people dear to her who fall under suspicion. As a second woman is drowned, and then a third, the queen also fears she might lose her own life, for the deadly, dual nature of even those she trusts always remains the fatal fashion.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shortly after Elizabeth I addresses a deputation from Parliament to end once and for all the issue of a royal marriage in Harper's entertaining eighth historical (after 2005's The Fyre Mirror), the queen's herb mistress reports the discovery of the body of her majesty's favorite starcher—in a vat of starch. (The fashion for large, stiff ruffs has made starch a precious commodity.) When the daughter of the queen's financial adviser is reported missing and later found in shock, Elizabeth goes undercover into the streets of London to seek answers. As the number of murder victims grows along with the list of suspects, Elizabeth has to wonder if she herself will become the killer's next target. As ever, Harper skillfully interweaves fact and fiction, presenting a heroine who is as intelligent and gutsy a crime solver as she was a real-life monarch. Readers will never again look at pictures of the Virgin Queen in her elaborate ruffs in quite the same way. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This is the eighth volume in Harper's popular series of mystery novels featuring Queen Elizabeth I of England as--yes--a sleuth investigating mayhem and murder in her beloved kingdom. The new fashion trend of heavily starched ruffs, those fancy, even outlandish (to modern eyes) collars that European men and women are seen wearing in paintings of days long ago, has set off keen competition among starching "houses" for the queen's patronage. Competition to the point of motivating murder, that is. As Her Majesty is wont to do (at least as Harper has her do, in these delightful novels), as if she didn't have enough on her plate with running the ship of state in particularly perilous times, she embroils herself in the crime's solution. And as always in these novels, the pattern of murder at hand seems to be leading in its inevitable conclusion to the murder of the queen herself. Historical-mystery lovers, and Harper's fans in particular, should rejoice at this latest installment. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312338856
• ISBN-13: 978-0312338855
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,872,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent well!, December 11, 2007

By 

Bookphile (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Fatal Fashione (Elizabeth I Mysteries, Book 8) (Mass Market Paperback)

Once again, Harper has done it. She really excels at taking Queen Elizabeth I and making her flesh and blood. I've always enjoyed how she portrays the queen as strong-willed and yet vulnerable and how she doesn't try to gloss over the queen's rough edges. She has taken something of a one-dimensional historical figure and made her flesh and blood. I've long admired Elizabeth I and I'm very glad to see an author doing her such justice in portraying her as the complex human being she must have been.

As in the previous novels in the series, the peace of Elizabeth's kingdom is threatened by murder most foul. Harper does a nice job of juxtaposing the murder mystery with Elizabeth's fears of a northern uprising and the queen's constant worries over exactly how much of a threat Mary, Queen of Scots posed. I think this nicely shows how Elizabeth was concerned not only with the political in that she frets about the well-being of her country as a whole but also the personal in that she takes such an interest in her subjects.

Harper's other strength are her secondary characters. Those who have read the series have likely come to feel like Meg, Jenks, and Ned are friends and it is always welcome to read about the characters triumphs and to worry about their misfortunes. I felt the same sense of urgency Elizabeth felt when one of her favorites was placed in a position of grave danger.

As for the mystery itself, it is well-plotted and it is always intriguing to see how Harper uses period details to create innovative methods of executing a crime. This book's victim meets her end in the very vat in which she starches the highly fashionable ruffs that are helping her to earn her fortune. This is characteristic of Harper's writing in that the ends that the unfortunate victims meet provide a peek into the clever and diabolical minds of their killers.

Also admirable is the deft way in which Harper weaves the romances of secondary characters skillfully into the narrative to serve as emphasis of the lonely position that Elizabeth has chosen for herself. I've certainly always understood that Elizabeth's defiance when it came to the subject of marriage was certainly a political risk but it was Harper who made me begin to think of what a personal risk it must have been.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't wait for the next installment, May 13, 2006

By 

Maren Degraff "Maren Cadenza" (Manhattan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fatal Fashione (Elizabeth I Mysteries, Book 8) (Hardcover)

My taste in ficton is mostly for female detectives and non for non-ficton Elizabeth I, her life and times... here is the best of both worlds -- this is the eighth in the series, one for each of the first eight years of Elizabeth's reign... Harper weaves known historical facts into her books were Elizabeth is the investigator, Queen and champion for justice and honor... Harper has creatively answered questions of Elizabeth's reign and her fictional filling in the blanks reads so well that right now I'm not sure what is fact and what is ficton... My interest in the everyday lives of Londoner's is always rewarded... I'm not a scholar and Harper's historical ficton has inspired me to read more 'serious' books about the period... although I must admit a warm cozy feeling when a new edition in this series comes out and I curl up on the couch and join the Privy Council Gang on their journey... my only disappointment is that I will have to wait until 2007 for the next book... Brava!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars History AND a mystery -- terrific!, March 24, 2006

By 

Amy Wolff Sorter "author, SERVANT OF THE GODS... (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fatal Fashione (Elizabeth I Mysteries, Book 8) (Hardcover)

Being very picky about the mysteries I read, but liking anything to do with Tudor England, I wasn't sure what to think when I picked up "Fatal Fashione." The idea about Elizabeth I of England as a solver of crimes and mysteries was a little out of the box as far as I was concerned, but I decided to give it a try.

I'm very glad I invested both the time and the money in this one. In addition to outlining the atmosphere of Elizabethan England through a lot of great description that moves along, Harper provides readers with a great "whodunit," to the point that no one is sure who killed the starcher and laundress until very near the end. And like a good "whodunit," she makes the motive work.

Her characterizations are terrific as well -- Harper brings Elizabeth I across as a feisty, "never say die," compassionate figure, one is deserving of the crown of England and the loyalty of her subjects.

The only problem I had with this book is that it strained my imagination to think that a Queen with the responsibilities of Elizabeth I had time to run around and solve mysteries while the country ran itself (this was the time before English royalty was largely ceremonial -- kings and queens actually made life and death decisions about their subjects).

Yet Harper manages to make it work.

In short, Harper does what authors are supposed to do -- to take care of their readers by introducing likeable characters.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy and read her other books.

Amy Wolff Sorter, author, Servant of the Gods