The Heretic's Creed (Ursula Blanchard Series #14)

by Fiona Buckley

Overview

“Buckley draws even the most minor characters with subtlety and skill, making the dramatic conclusion that much more satisfying.” - Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Ursula Blanchard must acquire a mysterious medieval manuscript in the latest enthralling historical adventure.

February, 1577. Sir William Cecil has a dangerous new mission for Ursula Blanchard. He has asked her to visit Stonemoor House on the bleak Yorkshire moors, the home of a group of recusant women led by Abbess Philippa Gould. In their possession is an ancient book, and the Queen’s advisor, Dr John Dee, is eager to get hold of it.

However, while the Abbess is anxious to sell the book, others such as her half-sister Bella believe it to be heretical and demand that it be burned. It is not Sir William’s first attempt to secure the book. His two previous emissaries vanished without trace. What happened to them – and will Ursula suffer the same fate?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780295749
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	08/01/2018
Series:	Ursula Blanchard Series , #14
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.55(w) x 8.74(h) x (d)

About the Author

Fiona Buckley is the author of the Ursula Blanchard mysteries. Under her real name, Valerie Anand, she is the author of numerous historical novels including the much-loved Bridges Over Time series. Brought up in London, she now lives in Surrey.

Editorial Reviews

"Buckley’s intelligent, historically accurate Elizabethan-era whodunits"

Booklist

★ 11/07/2016
Buckley’s outstanding 14th Tudor mystery (after 2015’s A Perilous Alliance) takes Ursula Blanchard, the intelligent, resourceful gentlewoman with a secret family connection to Elizabeth I, to an unofficial convent in a remote corner of the Yorkshire moors. An ostensible diplomatic visit to the court of the child king of Scotland, James VI, plays cover for Blanchard’s investigation of Stonemoor House, where two men have gone on the queen’s business before—and never returned. Buckley manages not only to imbue the would-be convent, reached in the midst of a snowstorm no less, with mystery and menace but also to dramatize how difficult it was for a woman to live an independent life in the 1570s, whether she be Protestant widow or aristocratic Catholic spinster. It was a time when religious calling was hopelessly tangled with political loyalty, and people could easily mistake an herbal cure for a witch’s potion. Still, there are no caricatured villains in this layered entry. Buckley draws even the most minor characters with subtlety and skill, making the dramatic conclusion that much more satisfying. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Buckley’s intelligent, historically accurate Elizabethan-era whodunits"

Booklist

12/01/2016
In her 14th series outing (after A Perilous Alliance), Ursula Blanchard is sent to Yorkshire to acquire a medieval manuscript currently in the possession of a group of recusant nuns. Previous attempts to secure the book ended in the disappearance of the messengers.

Library Journal

2016-10-19
A spy in skirts serves in Her Majesty's secret service, Tudor style.In February 1577, 40-ish, thrice-widowed Ursula Blanchard is giving a wedding for her young ward when she receives an important guest: William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth's Lord Treasurer and assigner of secret errands on behalf of the queen. Unlike past tasks, he assures Ursula, this one poses no danger to her. She has merely to go to Edinburgh and deliver a highly confidential letter, thence to a remote Yorkshire manor, Stonemoor House, to collect a rare book of astronomical observations. As a former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, who is also her half sister, the product of Henry VIII's infidelity when he was married to Anne Boleyn, Ursula can hardly decline, but she can ask Burghley why he isn't sending a Queen's Messenger. It turns out Burghley has already dispatched two—including Ursula's good friend and one-time suitor—but they never returned. Despite this less than reassuring news and her resident soothsayer's warning, the first part of Ursula's errand goes smoothly enough. In fact, it takes Burghley longer to explain the letter, which concerns a plot surrounding Mary, Queen of Scots, than for Ursula to deliver it. The next task requires Ursula and her retinue to brave a blizzard to get to Stonemoor, an informal convent. During their stay, Ursula's personal tirewoman Fran discovers a secret sign that at least one of the Queen's Messengers has been there and was in danger. So Ursula and her friends are more than happy to pay for the book and head home. But a strange fact about the book (quite apart from the curse on it) and a piece of gruesome evidence make Ursula turn her party back to Stonemoor and the danger she's feared all along. Buckley's storied heroine (A Perilous Alliance, 2015, etc.) has all too little chance to prove herself in her 14th adventure: too many of the critical scenes are either narrated to her or take place offstage.

Kirkus Reviews