Betrayal: Booke the Second - Patricia Finney

This is the second (booke, yes, it's really spelled that way in the book)of the Lady Grace mysteries I’ve read and it was as much fun as the first. Lady Grace, if you’ll remember, is a Maid in the court of Queen Elizabeth the First. Her mother was one of the Queen’s Ladies in Waiting who was accidentally murdered by a drink meant for the queen, so she’s a special favorite of the queen and she gets special favors, like being allowed to investigate mysteries. And this mystery had a bit of the pirate in it because Grace ends up stowed away on a ship, so it’s jolly good fun. (BTW, did you know the new Johnny Depp movie comes out THIS WEEKEND???!!! I can barely contain my excitement!) The ship she stows away on turns out to be the completely wrong ship, but in the end it all turns out right…although not without some stress along the way.

There’s lots of action, suspense and adventure in this novel, and it’s another I think both boy and girl readers would enjoy. We don’t have this one in our library yet, I got it from Multnomah County, but I do plan to buy it, so you can look for it in the fall!

Assassin - Patricia Finney

This is the first of "The Lady Grace mysteries, from the daybookes of Lady Grace Cavendish" and I found it to be a delightful story, even if it was about murder. Lady Grace is an orphan girl, favorite maid to Queen Elizabeth I whose mother died accidentally when someone attempted to kill the Queen.

Grace, at thirteen, must choose her betrothed at the Valentine's ball, and so she does. But when one of the other suitors is found murdered and the man she has chosen is accused, Grace decides she must act to save him. She and two friends, with the secret permission of the Queen, engage in some very tricky sleuthing, getting themselves into more than a few close scrapes along the way. Ultimately, of course, Grace and her friends do discover the villain and he is brought to justice by the Queen. Grace also receives some justice in the end, which I was happy to see.

This is an exciting and interesting historical fiction narrative that I think both girls and boys would enjoy. This is the first in a series which is written, interestingly, by more then one author. The first three books are written by Patricia Finney, but then books four and five are written by other people - sort of like the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. I'm interested to read the different authors and see if I can tell a difference between them.