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Forest of Secrets
Forest of Secrets
Forest of Secrets
Ebook287 pages8 hours

Forest of Secrets

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Ursula travels deep into the New Forest to investigate rumours of a plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth in this gripping Tudor mystery.

May, 1586. Ursula and her retinue return home from a lengthy trip to discover she has an unexpected visitor. Etheldreda Hope is a simple countrywoman who has come to Ursula with disturbing tales of strange goings-on in her rural village. Fearing that Etheldreda's reports of mysterious forest rites indicate a possible conspiracy to overthrow Queen Elizabeth in favour of her cousin, Mary Stuart, the queen's spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, orders Ursula to travel to Etheldreda's home to find out what's really going on.

On reaching Chenston village, deep in the New Forest, Ursula discovers an isolated, suspicious community; the locals deeply in thrall to the old pagan traditions and beliefs. But are these ancient customs harmless - or are they part of a genuine conspiracy against the queen? And, if so, who is behind it?

It's not until the night of Halloween that Ursula will discover the shocking truth.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherSevern House
Release dateMay 1, 2021
ISBN9781448305124
Forest of Secrets
Author

Fiona Buckley

Fiona Buckley is the author of eight historical mystery novels featuring Ursula Blanchard: To Shield the Queen, The Doublet Affair, Queen's Ransom, To Ruin a Queen, Queen of Ambition, A Pawn for a Queen, The Fugitive Queen, and The Siren Queen. She lives in North Surrey, England.

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Rating: 4.071428571428571 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the nineteenth book in the Ursula Stannard series of Elizabethan mysteries. Much of this centred around revived pagan rituals in the New Forest, and whether they might be connected - rather implausibly - to plots to free the imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots. This is at the time of the notorious Babington plot in 1586, the exposure of which caused Mary's final downfall and led to her execution. Ursula and her friends expose the New Forest goings on - which I found it hard to take seriously as an actual plot and, indeed, while sinister and nasty in import, they had no connection to national events. Ursula has to attend the execution of Mary to report back to Elizabeth on how her royal cousin meets her end. As ever I like the recurring characters very much and that keeps me reading, however implausible the plots sometimes are.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Queen’s own investigator!1586, Ursula Stannard (Blanchard) once again does Sir Francis Walsingham’s bidding—and by extension her half sister’s, Elizabeth Tudor. This time she’s investigating rumours of pagan rites in a forest (brought to Ursula’s attention by a dame from the remote village of Chenston), and how that might or might not relate to Walsingham’s enquiries and lures around rumours of a plot being hatched by Mary Stuart against her cousin Elizabeth. Ursula is pointed straight towards Mary, albeit via a devious path.Of course she’s also once more overseeing the education of her newest companion, a young gentlewoman of a Puritan background whom we met in the last story. I find I don’t really trust this particular young woman, Mildred Gresham. She is too eager to walk her own path, often unwisely.Like the last adventure, we end up deep in the forests of England, in an out of the way village, where intermarriage is maybe to close, and where Christianity is surrounded by age old rituals, where danger and superstitions walk hand in hand, and can be easily manipulated.I’ve enjoyed following Ursula’s life, the various paths she’s trodden, her quick execution of plans as danger looms. I’m exhausted and she probably is too. We can see her manservant and friend Roger Brockley is ageing, as is Dale, Brockley’s wife and Ursula’s maid. Ursula’s service for the Queen in this story is one that she will take no joy in. Though maybe one could say, who else can Elizabeth trust?Where Ursula will go from here I don’t know. She serves at the Queen’s pleasure. Maybe it’s time for her own pleasure, time for less dangerous meanderings—raising horses, keeping an eye on her business fronts, and caring for her children and extended family group. That is, if the Queen and Walsingham will let her. But I suspect that won’t be, as is raised, if anything happened to Mary Stuart, Philip of Spain would be infuriated. The future beckons.A Severn House ARC via NetGalley

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Forest of Secrets - Fiona Buckley

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