The Lady Grace Mysteries is a detective fiction series about the escapades of Lady Grace Cavendish, a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth I. The books are written in the style of a diary. Each book sees her trying to solve a mystery of the royal 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.
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The first four books, Assassin, Betrayal, Conspiracy, Deception and the later Feud, were written by Patricia Finney, and the other books are co-written by Sara Volger and Jan Burchett. All authors write under the pseudonym "Grace Cavendish".
There are a number of recurring characters who appear in all the books.
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.
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. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, 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, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.
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 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 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 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 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!
Book Synopses Assasin-Lady Grace Cavendish, the orphaned Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth 1, must choose between three would-be husbands that the Queen has chosen for her. However disaster soon strikes- one of her suitors is found murdered and another is apparently guilty! Lady Grace is unconvinced and seeks to find the true killer with the help of her loyal friends, Ellie the laundrymaid and Masou the acrobat. In the hustle and bustle of the Elizabethan Court our heroine must solve her first mystery, hindered by false trails and the limited privacy that comes with her status. Betrayal- A trip to the docks to visit the handsome sea captain Sir Francis Drake sets the Court in a flutter, and when Grace's fellow Maid of Honour, the vain Sarah Bartelmy mysteriously disappears,Lady Cavendish assumes that she has run away to marry the pirate captain. However a trail of clues leads the Lady Pursuivant to suspect a kidnapping! With the help of her tumbler friend Masou, she stows away on Drake's ship, determined to save her friend's reputation.