A female spymaster will face mortal danger to protect her husband and her queen. . .

London, 1582: Mistress Rosamond Jaffrey, a talented and well-educated woman of independent means, is recruited by Queen Elizabeth I’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, to be lady-in-waiting to Lady Mary, a cousin of the queen. With her talent in languages and knowledge of ciphers and codes, she will be integral to the spymaster as an intelligence gatherer, being able to get close to Lady Mary just at the time when she is being courted by Russia’s Ivan the Terrible. However, there are some nobles at court who will do anything they can to thwart such an alliance; and Rosamond soon realises the extent of the danger, when a prominent official is murdered and then an attempt is made on both her and Lady Mary’s lives. In her quest to protect her ward – and her estranged husband – Rosamond must put herself in mortal peril.

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Hands down one of the best Historical Mystery Thrillers I have read this year by far. Where do I begin? This story captured my attention from the first page and that is a rare thing indeed. Emerson’s main character, Mistress Rosemond Jaffrey is and extremely educated, independent and strong women of her time. At first I wasn’t sure how her role as lady-in-waiting was going to work in this story but it was brilliantly played. All of the central characters in this story was written strong and even the behind the scene characters play an important role. Often times I read stories where there are characters that don’t add to the story one bit and this is not the case in this one. I don’t often say this because it’s a cliché but I was at the edge of my seat reading this story pretty much the whole time and I got annoyed when people would interrupt me from reading….*laughing*

One of the other things I find extremely important in a story is to leave the reader guessing who done it. Most times I guess the murderer right off the bat and that annoys me to no end. It wasn’t like that for this book. And the title and premise for this story is excellent!

When I read a book I want strong characters, dialogue, plot, setting, and intelligent writing. I found all this in Murder in The Queens Wardrobe. I am patiently waiting for more stories like this from Emerson and I want to read more adventure with Mistress Rosemond Jaffrey. She is my new favorite female character.

Who am I kidding….I hope that the author comes out with another story and soon! Highly recommend!

Stephanie M. Hopkins