Queen Elizabeth I Stars

 

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.

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Fiction

• To Shield the Queen
  Author: Buckley, Fiona
  Publisher: Scribner List Price: $ 21 ISBN: 0684838419 Date: 1997
  Kirkus
  Set in Queen Elizabeth I's court, this compelling historical debut mystery introduces Ursula Blanchard, a widowed young mother who has become lady-in-waiting to the queen. In To Shield the Queen, Ursula finds herself at the center of a plot that could disgrace and threaten Her Majesty.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction
  
• Queen of Ambition
  Author: Buckley, Fiona
  Publisher: Scribner $ 23 ISBN: 0743202643 Date: 2001
  Booklist
  In the fifth Ursula Blanchard adventure, the resourceful and independent Elizabethan lady-in-waiting goes undercover in a Cambridge pie shop to investigate a possible assassination plot against the Queen.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction
  Updated 10.24.05
• The Siren Queen: Ursula Blanchard
  Author: Buckley, Fiona
  Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743237528 Date: 2004
  PW
  The latest richly evocative and impressively researched mystery in a series that seamlessly blends riveting authenticity and masterful storytelling reveals the inside story behind Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction Stars
  Updated 10.4.04
• Unicorn's Blood
  Author: Finney, Patricia
  Publisher: St Martins $ 19.95 ISBN: 0312077491 Date: 1992
  Kirkus
  Brilliantly written in language eerily reminiscent of Elizabethan English, this historical thriller is set in 16th-century England and concerns a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth I. Hidden inside a firedrake, an enormous float in the form of a dragon, the killer will shoot a poisoned arrow from the dragon's eye as it passes in front of the Queen in the upcoming parade.
  Updated 10.25.05
• Unicorn's Blood
  Author: Finney, Patricia
  Publisher: Picador $ 25 ISBN: 0312182015 Date: 1998
  LJ
  From the author of Firedrake's Eye comes a masterpiece of voice, historical detail, and psychological insight to rival Peter Ackroyd and A.S. Byatt. Narrated by a defrocked nun, a poignant victim of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, Unicorn's Blood tells of the existence of a secret diary kept by Queen Elizabeth I as a young princess.
  Updated 10.24.05
• The Succession: A Novel of Elizabeth and James
  Author: Garrett, George
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 17.95 ISBN: 0385024215 Date: 1983
  The essence of the Elizabethan Age comes vividly alive in The Succession, in which the tortuous relationship between Elizabeth I of England and James VI of Scotland runs its course. Elizabeth is dying and must appoint a successor. Using extant letters and documents, George Garrett evokes the passionate and dissembling temperament of the queen and the duplicitous machinations of her secretary, Robert Cecil. This brilliant historical novel provides a panoramic vision of the age as it looks back in time to the aura of Henry VIII and ahead to the accession of Charles I. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 10.25.05
• The Virgin's Lover
  Author: Gregory, Philippa
  Publisher: Touchstone $ 24.95 ISBN: 0743256158 Date: 2004
  Blending historical fact with contemporary rumor, the bestselling author of The Queen's Fool creates a dark and tense novel of Tudor times, which casts Elizabeth I in a light no one has suggested before. Passionate, fearful, emotionally needy, this is a queen who rules over a feverishly plotting, pleasure-seeking court.
  Updated 10.25.05
• The Fire Mirror: An Elizabeth I Mystery
  Author: Harper, Karen
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312326920 Date: 2005
  LJ
  Elizabethan England comes alive as its young queen struggles to stop a serial killer who uses fire as a weapon. Additional titles in series: The Poyson Garden (1999), The Tidal Poole (2000), The Twylight Tower ( 2001), The Queen's Cure (2002), The Thorne Maze (2003).
  Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction
  Updated 10.24.05

Also:

• My Enemy the Queen by VIctoria Holt (1978)
• Elizabeth, Captive Princess by Margaret Irwin (1948)
• Virgin, Prelude to the Throne by Robin Maxwell (2001)
• I, Elizbeth by Rosalind Miles (1994)

Nonfiction

• Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens
  Author: Dunn, Jane
  Publisher: Knopf $ 30 ISBN: 0375408983 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  The first dual biography of two of the world's most remarkable women--Elizabeth I of England and Mary Queen of Scots--by one of Britain's "best biographers" (The Sunday Times).
  Updated 11.24.03
• The Queen's Slave Trader: Jack Hawkyns, Elizabeth I, and the Trafficking in Human Souls
  Author: Hazlewood, Nick
  Publisher: Morrow $ 26.95 ISBN: 0066210895 Date: 2004
  PW
  In the 17th and 18th centuries, England became the greatest slave trading nation in the world. This painstakingly researched biography of Jack Hawkyns, the queen's personal slave trader, explores his life and chronicles the rise of the English slave trade.
  Updated 10.25.04
• Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne
  Author: Starkey, David
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26 ISBN: 0060184973 Date: 2000
  Kirkus LJ
  In this spirited United Kingdom bestseller, Starkey presents a brilliant examination of the formative years of the "Virgin Queen", recreating a host of extravagant characters, mad-cap schemes, and tragic plots, while using original documents to depict the princess's tumultuous life before her accession to the throne in 1588
  Updated 10.25.05
• Life of Elizabeth I
  Author: Weir, Alison
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 27.50 ISBN: 0345405331 Date: 1998
  Kirkus LJ
  Perhaps the most influential sovereign England has ever known, Queen Elizabeth I reigned prosperously for more than forty years, from 1558 until her death in 1603. Now, in this brilliantly researched, fascinating new book, acclaimed biographer Alison Weir brings the enigmatic Elizabeth to life. An enthralling epic that is also an amazingly intimate portrait, The Life of Elizabeth I is a work of deep reflection and extraordinary scholarship -- a mesmerizing reading experience. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 10.25.05