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Historical Mysteries

Face Down Below the Banqueting House, Kathy Lynn Emerson, Perseverance Press, $13.95.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book - I had never read Kathy Lynn Emerson before, and had been put off (I think) because I had read Karen Harper's books, which feature Queen Elizabeth I as the narrator. That just seemed so wrong to me, that it was a lovely surprise to find Queen Elizabeth I present in Emerson's book, but only tangentially. We as readers only get a good "look" at her in one (very memorable) scene. This book centers, instead (as all the Emerson novels do) on Susanna, Lady Appleton, a skillful herbalist and widow. The Queen comes into the story because she is considering staying at Lady Appleton's house during her summer progress, and the house, Leigh Abbey, is the largest in the surrounding neighborhood. Lady Appleton, not a fan of court life, is dismayed by the possibility of being booted out of her own house so the Queen can move in, furniture, bathtub, snotty courtiers and all, for a few days. The preparations even include building a special type of treehouse - suitable for a court banquet - in her back yard.

The story also centers around Lady Appleton's maid, Jennet, who in an opening prologue, meets not only one of the villains of the piece, Master Tymberly, but Lord Robert Dudley and the Queen herself. Much as the film Shakespeare in Love was so adept at conveying the kind of wonder and delight playgoers must have felt when seeing a brand new play by William Shakespeare, Emerson is equally adept at conveying the kind of intimidated awe and wonder an ordinary person in the 16th century might have felt were they to actually encounter Queen Elizabeth. For any fan of Elizabethan England, this is a true delight.

The other great strength of the book - alongside a clever plot that finds two men killed in mysterious circumstances - is the wealth of detail about daily life at the time. I learned quite a bit but it wasn't force fed to me - it was a natural part of the story. Lady Appleton is also a magnetic central character, and her annoyance at the Queen's intrusion - felt long before her actual presence - is one of the best parts of the book, as is her somewhat unorthodox relationship with a fellow landowner. I was even fooled a bit by the ending. This is a highly recommended read for any history mystery fan, but especially for a fan of Elizabethan England.

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