The Doublet Affair, by Fiona Buckley

The Doublet Affair
By Fiona Buckley
An Ursula Blanchard Mystery at Queen Elizabeth I's Court

If you read my other blog, Nan Hawthorne's Booking the Middle Ages, you know two things relevant to this review. One is that I read what the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library sends me, and that they have been sending me a lot of Ursula Blanchard mysteries lately. Another thing you know is that I am not entirely nuts about these mysteries. I groan every time Ursula starts describing the intricacies of fabric, cut and embellishment of clothing. I swear, she would start in at this even while standing next to a corpse... Still, this book at least deserves my commentary.

In this mystery, Ursula has just seen her new husband, de la Roche, escape to France. She doesn't know if he can and will forgive her for betraying him to Cecil, but if he will have her, she will move Heaven adn Earth to get to him. Or will she? Cecil and Queen Elizabeth have other plans for her. They place her in the home of the Masons, a Catholic family, suspected of being involved in a plot to help Mary Stuart onto the throne of England. Leonard Mason is a quirky inventor, and his new flying machine and other devices seem to point to his being part of a plot that has claimed the life of two men whose bodies are found in the Thames. Ursula finds herself playing embroidery and dancing mistress to the three daughters in a wildly chaotic household. Her attempts to uncover documents and other evidence of the unknown plot nearly get her and her sevants, Brockley and Dean, killed. Ursula is puzzling over the roles of various of the Masons' acquaintances when who should arrive but de la Roche. Ursula must decide how to help him get away and whether to go with him.

It's an entertaining story and rather informative of things other than fashion in places. Buckley mostly uses the props she presents the reader with, but not always, which can make things alternatiely confusing and predictable. However, I like her attitude towards historical fiction expressed in the Author's Note while explaining the two inventions and their anachronistic debuts: "Have some fun with it and after all, it is fiction".

By the way, "doublet" not only means a type of men's clothing, but turncoat in the loyalty sense of the word.