The Lady Grace Mysteries is a detective fiction

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

 series about the escapades of Lady Grace Cavendish

Grace Cavendish

Lady Grace Cavendish is a fictional detective and the central character in the "Lady Grace Mysteries"; a series of historical novels for younger readers. The author of the series is "Grace Cavendish", a pseudonym for three female authors: Patricia Finney, Sara Vogler and Jan...

, a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth I. The books are written in the style of a diary

Diary

A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...

. Each book sees her trying to solve a mystery of the royal court

Royal court

Royal court, as distinguished from a court of law, may refer to:* The Royal Court , Timbaland's production company*Court , the household and entourage of a monarch or other ruler, the princely court...

. The stories are set in 1569 and 1570, and there are twelve books so far; Assassin; Betrayal; Conspiracy; Deception; Exile; Feud; Gold; Haunted, Intrigue, Jinx, Keys, and Loot. The first book, Assassin, was published in 2004.

Authors

The first four books, Assassin, Betrayal, Conspiracy, Deception and the later Feud, were written by Patricia Finney

Patricia Finney

Patricia Finney is an English author and journalist. She is a graduate of Oxford University with a degree in History. She has written under the pen names "P. F...

, and the other books are co-written by Sara Volger and Jan Burchett. All authors write under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 "Grace Cavendish".

Series

• Assassin by Patricia Finney
  Patricia Finney
  Patricia Finney is an English author and journalist. She is a graduate of Oxford University with a degree in History. She has written under the pen names "P. F...
  
  , Doubleday, 2004, ISBN 13: 9780385606448
• Betrayal by Patricia Finney, Doubleday, 2004, ISBN 13: 9780385606455
• Conspiracy by Patricia Finney, 2005
• Deception by Patricia Finney, 2005
• Exile by Sara Vogler & Jan Burchett, 2006
• Feud by Patricia Finney, 2006
• Gold by Sara Vogler & Jan Burchett, 2006
• Haunted by Sara Vogler & Jan Burchett, 2006
• Intrigue by Sara Vogler & Jan Burchett, 2008
• Jinx by Sara Vogler & Jan Burchett, 2008
• Keys by Sara Vogler & Jan Burchett, 2009
• Loot by Sara Vogler & Jan Burchett, 2010

Lady Grace Cavendish

Lady Grace Cavendish is the youngest Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth I. In the first book, Assassin she is thirteen years old; by the eleventh, Keys, she is fifteen. She is an orphan like Ellie and Masou her father died when she was two, fighting a war in France, and her mother drank poison intended for the Queen. Her best friends are Ellie and Masou, although they have to hide their friendship because she is a Lady and they are servants. Sharp and clever, Grace always solves a new mystery in a short deadline and is quietly rewarded by the Queen. Grace has to keep her investigations a secret, but she tells her best friends Masou and Ellie, and they help her with the investigations when she needs it. She is also the Queen's goddaughter.Lady Grace never wants to get married as she wants to be like the Queen.She is very discreet about her being the Queen's "Lady Pursuivant" and always fascinated by the Queen's acting skills.

Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty

Tudor dynasty

The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...

. The daughter of Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...

, was executed three years after her birth, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. In 1558 Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister, the Catholic Mary I of England

Mary I of England

Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.

Ellie Bunting

Ellie is a laundry-maid at Queen Elizabeth's court, who later in the series becomes Lady Grace's tiring woman. She is very good friends with Grace and Masou and she often assists them in solving mysteries. Ellie is very superstitious, Like Grace and Masou, she is an orphan as her parents died of the sickly plague. She sneaks out occasionally to meet Grace and Masou. The deputy laundress, Mrs. Fadget, treats Ellie badly, and tries to suck up to Grace.
It is in Haunted that the Queen upgrades Ellie to be Grace's tiring woman. She takes great care and time with Grace's hair and appearance and often accompanies her on her missions.

Masou al-Ahmed

Masou is a Muslim boy and a skilled tumbler in Queen Elizabeth's court. Like Ellie, he is rewarded later in the series and becomes one of the Queen's very own Fools after performing an act of bravery. He is good friends with Grace and Ellie and helps them solve mysteries. Masou is from Africa and never knew his mother, who died at his birth. His father died of consumption after arriving in England. He is cheeky,sexy, fun and boastful about his skills. He is especially good at juggling with fire. He likes to try and scare the girls and in Haunted, Grace says it is the first time she has seen him speechless.

Lady Sarah Bartelmy

Lady Sarah seems to care only for her looks but will aid her friends if they need her. She flirts a lot and fights with Lady Jane. Not much is known about Lady Sarah's childhood or family except that she is an heiress and her family owns a large estate called Bartemly House. She also seems to have some experience on a ship.
Lady Sarah is very pretty, with becoming copper coloured locks and a large bosom. Her constant fussing over her clothes drives Mary Shelton and Lady Grace (who share a bedchamber with her) mad. She is the poor Maid of Honour who has to sit for hours on end while the Queens artist paint her because Queen Elizabeth has no time to spare. She also pretends to be her at a masque where the queen plays a trick on Robert (Robin) Dudley and a Prince.Her rival at court is Lady Jane; they are in competition for the attention of attendant young gentlemen. Despite complaining that Lady Jane has all the handsome suitors, she is never lacking any herself, wherever she goes. After the tenth book, Lady Sarah is being wooed by a Gentleman of the Guards named Daniel Chesire. He writes love poetry for her, which she receives very happily, and by the end of the twelfth book they are hand-fasted to wed.

Lady Jane Coningsby

Lady Jane despises Lady Sarah, and fights with her almost constantly. She is always searching for ways to outdo Lady Sarah in gaining the attention of the young gentlemen. She has a tall elegant figure and blond hair 'foaming down her back', as one of the dafter court gentlemen wrote in a poem to her. Her father was the ambassador to the French Court at one time so she gives herself superior airs and graces. Jane also thinks she knows more about fashion than anyone else because the French Court was so fashionable at the time and wears a lot of French-style clothes. She is very jumpy about her clothes and her reputation for her beauty.Every other Maid of Honour is very fed up of Lady Jane and Lady Sarah quarralling.

Mary Shelton

Mary Shelton is another Maid of Honour and is a kind friend of Lady Grace. She is not a lady herself, but is qualified enough by birth to wait on the Queen. She is not entirely clueless about Grace's detective work, and she is very useful to Grace when it comes to information about the people around her. Mary has lots of friends. In real life Mary Shelton did exist and after a while became the Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I, a great honour. She was well known for being irritating, and was slapped across the cheek by the Queen herself once, a happening proven by historical evidence!

Reviews

• http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/09/27/190315.php
• http://www.kidsreads.com/series/series-lady-grace-titles.asp