Fiona Buckley

February, 1571. Ursula is once more plunged into affairs of the state when she escorts her foster daughter Margaret to the Netherlands to meet her suitor. The queen's spymaster, Sir William Cecil, learns that the wealthy Italian banker Roberto Ridolfi will be hosting their forthcoming wedding – a man who he fears may once again be plotting to put Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne. But Ursula is also about to come face-to-face with her greatest...

When Ursula's young son is kidnapped, she is lured into an impossible dilemma. March, 1581. Queen Elizabeth is once again being urged to consider marriage to the Duke of Alençon, a French Catholic twenty years her junior. The prospect of the match is causing unrest throughout the kingdom. Ursula Blanchard however has more immediate matters to worry about when her 9-year-old son is snatched away while out riding. If she is ever to see him again, Ursula...

The tenth gripping mystery to feature Ursula Blanchard, special aide to Queen Elizabeth I. Happily married to her third husband, Ursula Blanchard is rudely shaken on receipt of a threatening letter from the exiled Anne Percy, Countess of Northumberland, whose treasonous plot against Elizabeth I, Ursula helped foil a few months previously. Ursula dismisses the Countess's letter as idle threats, but then a series of strange events rocks Ursula's household-and...

Ursula Blanchard must acquire a mysterious medieval manuscript in the latest enthralling historical adventure. February, 1577. Sir William Cecil has a dangerous new mission for Ursula Blanchard. He has asked her to visit Stonemoor House on the bleak Yorkshire moors, the home of a group of recusant women led by Abbess Philippa Gould. In their possession is an ancient book, and the Queen's advisor, Dr John Dee, is eager to get hold of it. However,...

The queen's half-sister, Ursula Stannard, returns to solve another Tudor mystery in this page-turning tale of suspicious riches, murder and hidden treasures - can she find the golden cargoes? May 1589. Being the queen's half-sister and occasional secret agent, can take its toll, which is why Ursula Stannard is looking forward to the simple pleasure of attending the wedding of her tenant's daughter. But on arrival, Arabella the bride-to-be is refusing...

This passionate West Country smuggling saga set in the early 19th-century is an intriguing departure for Tudor mystery writer Fiona Buckley. Exmoor, 1800. When farmer's daughter Peggy Shawe meets the charismatic Ralph Duggan, son of a so-called 'free trader', it's love at first sight. Determined to prevent the match, Peggy's widowed mother sends her daughter to live with the Duggans for six weeks, believing she will be put off marriage to Ralph...

Ursula travels deep into the New Forest to investigate rumors 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 country woman 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...

As the adventures of Ursula Blanchard, secret agent for Queen Elizabeth I, continue, she finds herself in France reunited with her husband, Matthew de la Roche, in a passionate but flawed relationship. But when Ursula learns that her daughter Meg has mysteriously disappeared, she immediately sets out on a frantic and dangerous search. The trail leads back to England, to Vetch Castle, an eerie keep owned by the enigmatic Philip Mortimer.