The Lady Grace Mysteries: Deception

Lady Grace Cavendish is no ordinary Maid of Honour in Elizabeth I’s court – she is a secret ‘Pursuivant’, Court Spy for Her Majesty. Each of the alphabetised books in the series (‘Assassin’, ‘Betrayal’ etc.) shows Grace tackling some mystery or crime, with her friends, Masou the Jester and Ellie, a laundry maid. This title is set against the background of a great Freeze, with a Frost Fair erected on the Thames. The Queen is about to celebrate the new currency she has ordered when the body of a dead waterman is discovered with coins on his eyes. The three friends are soon embroiled in a dangerous quest that uncovers illicit dealings at the heart of the Royal Mint itself and leads to the unmasking of the fawning courtier, Sir Edward Latimer, as chief counterfeiter.

This is a charming series written in the form of Lady Grace’s confidences to her ‘Daybooke’, which is gathering a quiet fan-base among girls in particular. It combines historical thriller with a light dressing of historical fact in the form of a brief afterword on Tudor times, together with a glossary of Tudor English. The mischievous and incorrigibly curious Lady Grace is an engaging heroine whose adventures in Deception involve a number of wild goose-chases, each revealing different aspects of Elizabethan London, before the real villain is unmasked. The suspense-element in each title is nicely contrasted with the domestic lives of the young Ladies-in-Waiting at Court, all in a credible version of ‘Tudor’ language, which is not too challenging for young readers.