Face Down Below the Banqueting House: A Lady Appleton Mystery

From Booklist
The vivid and resourceful widow Susanna, Lady Appleton, is not wholly delighted to find that Elizabeth the Queen wishes sojourn at Leigh Abbey. This means that not only must Susanna to deal with the weaselly Tymberly, who prowls the house and grounds to see if they are suitable for her majesty, but also that she must move all her own household and goods for the queen. And Tymberly^B wants to build a banqueting house in Susanna's favorite old oak. Characters we have come to respect and sometimes to love--Susanna's housekeeper and confidant, Jennet; Nick Baldwin, whom Susanna loves but will not marry; Nick's dying, wicked mother--all get involved when Tymberly's slimy manservant is found dead and then a local man dies from a fall. Emerson's plot is deft and complex: she is at the top of her form here and leaves us with a breathless ending and lovely possibilities for future installments. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Before Queen Elizabeth I arrives at Leigh Abbey, home of herbalist and sleuth Susanna, Lady Appleton, a man dies in a fall. Is his death part of a plot against Elizabeth Tudor’ Or merely murder’ For newcomers and aficionados of historical fiction, Banqueting House contains a glossary of Elizabethan terms.

About the Author
Kathy Lynn Emerson, known for her deep historical research, has written 37 books. She lives in Wilton, Maine.


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Elizabethan sleuth Susanna, Lady Appleton (Face Down Across the Western Sea, 2002, etc.), solves a double murder involving blackmail and sexual indiscretion. March, 1573. Mischievous maid Sarah Jaffrey takes her unworldly sister-in-law Jennet to Greenwich to get a glimpse of the Queen. Jennet meets Her Majesty, but not under the circumstances she imagined. Instead, she's caught in the middle of a serious misunderstanding involving Elizabeth's missing ring. It takes the mention of Jennet's mistress Susanna, Lady Appleton, to extricate her from culpability. Susanna, meanwhile, has problems of her own as she tries to maintain discretion in her relationship with Whitethorn Manor's Nick Baldwin and please Nick's disapproving (and secretly dying) mother Winnifred, who wants a more exalted daughter-in-law. Susanna can't resist sleuthing when Miles Carter, manservant to the overbearing Brian Tymberley, yeoman of her majesty's chamber, is found dead below that banqueting house. The circle of suspects widens when Nick's servant Simon Brackney meets a similar fate. Suspicion centers on Susanna's flirtatious maid Grace, but she reveals some surprising secrets that send Susanna snooping in new directions. Spirited and studded with wry humor. The prefatory Cast of Characters helps immensely in sorting out the large number of series regulars, and the extensive glossary stands alone as a reading pleasure.


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