Ursula Blanchard mysteries

When the powerful Duke of Norfolk arranges a marriage between her daughter and an unsuitable man, Ursula Blanchard, a half-sister to Elizabeth I, uncovers a plot to overthrow the queen and begins to spy on one of the conspirators.

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...

When Ursula Blanchard's neighbour is murdered, she is once again involved with matters of espionage and affairs of state July, 1573. Recently widowed, Ursula Blanchard is living a quiet life on her Surrey estate, caring for her infant son. But her peaceful existence is shattered when Ursula's neighbour Jane Cobbold is found dead in her own flowerbed, stabbed through the heart with a silver dagger - and Ursula's manservant Brockley is arrested for...

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,...

"March, 1581. Queen Elizabeth is once again being urged to consider marriage to the Duke of Alenc̦on, a French Catholic twenty years her junior. The prospect of the match is causing unrest throughout the kingdom. Ursula 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 must undertake an impossibly difficult and dangerous mission - and commit an act...

"February, 1586. When the queen's spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, learns that Ursula is to visit her relatives in Devon, he asks her to find out what has happened to two of his local agents, who have been strangely silent recently. On arrival in the small Devon village of Zeal Aquatico, Ursula discovers that both spies in question have met with mysterious--and fatal--accidents. Or is there more to it than that? What did the two spies find out that...

March, 1588. With England in a state of high alert as King Philip of Spain amasses a vast fleet of warships ready to invade, Queen Elizabeth and her advisors seek a possible alliance with the Duke of Parma, Governor of the Netherlands. But their plans suffer a major setback when one of their most reliable spies is found murdered in the Hertfordshire countryside, shot dead by a crossbow bolt as he was transporting secret correspondence between the...

Ursula Stannard faces the ultimate test in this gripping Tudor mystery. How far is she prepared to go to protect those dearest to her and save her own life? April, 1590. Ursula Stannard, the queen's half-sister and occasional secret agent, has just left Sir Francis Walsingham's funeral when she is summoned back to her childhood home, Faldene House, by her aunt. Uncle Herbert has died suddenly from natural causes, but Ursula's arrival in the Sussex...