Queen of Ambition [Hardcover]

Fiona Buckley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 4, 2001

Fiona Buckley, acclaimed for the historical accuracy and riveting storytelling of her Ursula Blanchard mysteries at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, returns with a glorious new novel set in the summer of 1564.

Ursula and her small daughter, Meg, are at their Sussex manor house, Withysham, when Ursula is summoned to court. The queen will soon set out on a Royal Progress to Cambridge, the university town known for its Protestant sympathies. Accompanied by a huge entourage and two hundred wagonloads of goods, Her Majesty will spend five nights at King's College, where she will be kept in comfort and entertained in style. Nothing must go wrong.

But Sir William Cecil, the secretary of state, is worried. Some students plan to welcome the queen to Cambridge with a farcical playlet involving kidnapping and swords. Cecil would prohibit all violence and swords near the queen's person, but she insists on letting the students have their fun. Or is it the queen who is having fun playing with her courtiers' concerns? With the spirited, thirty-year-old queen, it's always hard to tell. Or, a more serious possibility, is the playlet being used to cloak a threat to Elizabeth's safety?

Cecil can't stop the playlet but he can send Ursula as a harbinger to find out what's really happening. Her mission: dress as a cookmaid and obtain a job in Roland Jester's pie shop. The pie shop is a meeting place for students, and Roland and his brother, Cambridge tutor Giles Woodforde, may somehow be involved in the playlet.

Working in a pie shop is a new experience for Ursula, but it's not the work that's disturbing. She hears students talking. She sees people whispering. Something sinister is indeedgoing on, and when a young student who is himself worried about the playlet dies in a suspicious fall just before he is to meet with Ursula, she knows that Cecil's fears are justified. The queen may well be the target of a plot, and Ursula may be the only one who can save her.

Rich with historical detail, compelling characters, and an original cipher worthy of a spy agency, this fifth Ursula Blanchard novel transports us to a romantic, mysterious time in history when seemingly insignificant events changed great destinies.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ursula Blanchard, lady-in-waiting and espionage agent to Queen Elizabeth I, shows her usual flare in dealing with murder and intrigue in Buckley's fifth engrossing Elizabethan mystery (after 2000's To Ruin a Queen). In the early summer of 1564, Ursula is at Withysham, her country manor house, where she and her eight-year-old daughter are waiting for the plague to end in France so that they may join her husband at their home in the Loire Valley. Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth is preparing a Royal Progress to Cambridge University. Ordered to court earlier than expected, Ursula learns that the queen's Secretary of State, Sir William Cecil, is fearful about a student play to be presented to the queen just after she enters the town and greets the public. Ursula and her good friend, Rob Henderson, are sent ahead to investigate. Going undercover in her housekeeper's dress, Ursula takes a job at the pie shop frequented by Cambridge students and across the street from where the play is to be performed. A student death, complicated ciphers and a runaway wife make for a suspenseful story. As in previous novels in the series, the author expertly blends historical fact and fiction. Although the conclusion may not satisfy some readers and minor characters are merely names, the challenging plot and winning heroine will satisfy existing historical fans and should attract new ones. (Jan. 3)Anand.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In her fifth outing (after To Ruin a Queen), Ursula Blanchard investigates a young man's death, convinced that it is connected to a seemingly innocent student prank that could endanger Queen Elizabeth. Good historical background and affecting personal detail make this another winner.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (December 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743202643
• ISBN-13: 978-0743202640
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,759,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars well worth reading in spite of flaws..., February 8, 2002

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queen of Ambition (Hardcover)

There are quite a few strikes against "The Queen of Ambition" -- a tenuous intrigue plot (part of the problem here is that Buckley portrays the villains in an almost comic fashion, that it is difficult indeed to take them seriously, or the threat that they pose to the Queen); a far fetched solution to the plot (a more cumbersome cipher I have yet to come across, also there was a flaw in the whole cipher subplot, but if I pointed it out in my review, that would be giving away things); Ursula's guilt over almost having slept with her manservant Brockley (the third time she's goes into the 'thank-goodness-we-didn't-give-in' routine, and I was rooting for Fran to leave this sorry pair and find new and better employment!)... Add to this the fact that I'm not a fan of the Tudors, and found Buckley's/Ursula's whitewashing of Elizabeth quite nauseating, and you'd be right to ask why I would recommend this mystery novel as a good read?

Make no mistake about it however, "The Queen of Ambition" is a good read. As reviewer Charles Falk so accurately noted, Fiona Buckley does a wonderful job of interweaving the political and religious problems that Elizabeth I and her ministers faced, with the plot of this mystery novel. But what I also liked was the manner in which Buckley realistically interweaved the kind of life a servant at an Elizabethan pie-shop would lead -- the hard and relentless work, how much a servant's life was bound to the whims and caprices of the master, and the precious few hours off, with Ursula's covert search for proof of wrong-doing. Far too often, mystery writers never go into how an agent's cover can get in the way of his/her undercover work. This was, I thought, a splendid touch. I also liked the manner in which Ursula's confidence in her abilities as a secret agent are developing. Ursula Blanchard is not an easy female protagonist to like completely, but it is easy to respect her abilities and her competence. And I think that Buckley is beginning to make Ursula question many of her past assumptions about her past relationships (with her first husband, and her aunt in particular). More introspection would definitely add more 'spice' to the mix.

The novel unfolds interestingly enough. Buckley is very good at adding little bits of information and plot developments that adds to the tension level of this intrigue novel -- in spite of the ongoing critiquing that was going on in my mind, I was glued to the pages until I finished the novel! So all in all, I'd say that this is a book that is worth reading.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner, April 16, 2002

By 

Jill Shure "[...]" (Carlsbad, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queen of Ambition (Hardcover)

Once again, Fiona Buckley delivers a page turner. This, along with her other Elizabethan mysteries, is a rare treat, filled with historical details that seduce the reader into exciting hours of good reading.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Elizabethan intrigue, January 5, 2002

By 

charles falk (Novato, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Queen of Ambition (Hardcover)

In this instance I concur with the opinion of the ubiquitous and easily-pleased "#1". Fiona Buckley has written an exciting intelligent historical mystery set in 1564, early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It is the time before Elizabeth has become "good Queen Bess"; a time filled with uncertainty and unrest over issues of religion and the royal succession. Mary, Queen of Scots and others vie for the right to succeed or replace her on the throne. Elizabeth's council led by Sir William Cecil are frantic for her to marry -- marry almost anyone -- except her favorite Robert Dudley (later to become the Earl of Leicester). Buckley's plot is skillfully intertwined with those issues.

Elizabeth and her court are about to set off on a royal summer progress to Cambridge. Cecil is worried about a proposed student "entertainment" involving a mock sword fight with Dudley and a faked abduction. He calls upon the services of his secret agents, including Ursula Blanchard, to investigate whether there is something sinister behind the student jape. I have some difficulty with Blanchard serving as a trusted operative for Sir William. Not only is she a woman (in a time when women occupied a circumscribed role in society), but she is married to a French Catholic nobleman. Cecil was adamantly anti-Catholic and anti-French. Once one accepts the unlikely existence of her lead character, Buckley provides a fast-paced, well-written yarn.

Ursula decides to go undercover by working in a pie shop frequented by the students planning the entertainment. The leader of the group dies in a riding accident shortly after she meets him. The Queen's arrival is imminent, pressuring Blanchard and her associates to come up with answers quickly.

Though the solution is intricate and a bit farfetched, Buckley gives the reader a throughly enjoyable trip through the society and intrigues of Elizabethan England. I particularly like the way Buckley shows Ursula and her colleagues as rounded human beings, affected and altered by the events of the story.