The continuing saga of Kathy Lynn Emerson’s characters during the Elizabethan Age moves to Scotland in the year 1577; the year Mary, the Scottish abdicated Queen, is held prisoner in England. Her eleven-year-old son James is heir to the throne and rule is in the hands of a series of regents who keep dying. Amid this political unrest, Catherine Glenelg is found unconscious down a flight of stairs and her mother-in-law dead on top of her, presumably murdered.
Catherine has no memory of the event and is accused of the murder. She disappears with the help of her friend, the mysterious Annabel. Her friend Susanna Appleton travels from Kent to try to rescue her and learn who the real murderer is. Even if Catherine is found, she won’t cross the border without her daughter and son, who is assigned to wait on the boy-king in Sterling Castle.
Thus the stage is set for the unravelling of the mystery of the mother-in-law’s death and the rescue of Catherine’s eight-year-old son from the castle. Portrayals of the period are undoubtedly genuine, and the language real for the time and place. Descriptions of the political conspiracies are intriguing, as is information on the vagaries of Scottish law (for instance, charges against a murderer could be either criminal or civil, and if compensation is paid to the survivor there are no criminal charges brought). Recommended.
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Theodore Feit
Other titles in this series: Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie, Face Down Below the Banqueting House, Face Down Upon An Herbal , Face Down Before Rebel Hooves, Face Down Across The Western Sea, Face Down Beneath The Eleanor Cross, Face Down Under The Wych Elm, Face Down Among the Winchester Geese.