The Lady Grace Mysteries is a series of children's detective fiction novels initially written by English author Patricia Finney, with Sara Volger and Jan Burchett later joining as co-authors.
[1] Written as a diary, the story follows Lady Grace Cavendish, a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth I, attempting to solve various mysteries within the royal court.
Her father died when she was two, fighting a war in France, and her mother unintentionally drank poison intended for the Queen, put there by the Papist Guises.
Fortunately, she does not have to marry one of them after a murder case when Sir Gerald is found dead with a knife in his back and Lord Robert is under suspicion.
The thing that Grace hates is when Ellie and Masou have to treat her like a Maid of Honour, and call her "mistress" and "lady".
In 1558 Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister, the devoutly Catholic Mary I of England, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.
Also, after the crisis of a fire at St Bartholemhew's Fair in Smith Field, Book 10, Jinx, she becomes very superstitious and jumpy, full of dire warnings.
Lucy is best friends with Carmina, gossips all the time and likes having long, boring, detailed conversations about sleeves and gowns in the latest styles.
Ellie is very superstitious - in Jinx and Haunted she insists upon carting a massive bag of amulets around with her, even when sailing down the Thames and walking the dogs through muddy fields!
The Heart of Kings is the most famed and fabled jewel in the world and is the most treasured possession of the Court's noble foreign visitor (Banoo Yasmine from Sharkand, A.K.A.
Ellie is later upgraded to tiring woman after she catches a criminal and she takes great care and time with Grace's hair and appearance and often accompanies her on her missions.
He likes to try and scare the girls and in Haunted, Grace says it is the first time she has seen him speechless (when he is granted the honor of Court Fool, and quickly becomes the Queen's favourite).
They constantly vie each other for the most men following them After the tenth book, Lady Sarah is wooed by a Gentleman of the Guards named Daniel Cheshire.
Jane has an exceedingly tall elegant figure and long, carefully styled blonde ringlets 'foaming down her back', as one of the dafter court gentlemen wrote in a poem.
Jane often uses her eloquently superior way of public speaking to demean her rival Lady Sarah and update herself as supposedly the most beautiful and attractive of all the Maids at Court.
Like many other Maids of Honour and Ladies in Waiting at the Court of Queen Elizabeth I, Jane's dreams are to find a man of money and rank to marry.
Jane constantly complains that Lady Sarah has all the gentlemen to herself, but despite her steadfast complaints, she does know that men of the Court go positively moony over her for a range of different reasons: her flirtatious manner, her beauty, and her wealth, the fact that she is an heiress, that she is exceedingly well-born, and that she has wealthy parents.
As Grace quotes in her daybooke, "She doesn't like mice, rats or lizards, or any small scuttly creature for that matter, but at least she has some sense."
In Book 10, Jinx, Lady Sarah is badly burned in a fire, but Daniel Cheshire remains steadfast and ever loyal to her, bringing trinkets, gifts and love poetry.
Lady Grace is unconvinced and seeks to find the true killer with the help of her loyal friends, Ellie the laundrymaid and Masou the acrobat.
In the hustle and bustle of the Elizabethan Court, our heroine must solve her first mystery, hindered by false trails and the limited privacy that comes with her status.
Grace plunges for the third time into the hustle and bustle of Queen Elizabeth's Court as she tries to unravel the mystery of the murderous intent of a hidden presence.
Six months have passed and snow lies thick upon the ground as Queen Elizabeth's favourite goddaughter paces through the palace, desperate to attend the Frost Fair.
Her searches for justice take her all over London and beyond, to find a most unlikely villain...[1] Spring is inching forwards and the wondrous Banoo Yasmine has come to Court, begging for a loan from Queen Elizabeth.
The Court is bewitched by the exotic wonders of the beautiful young woman and one of Grace's closest friends begins yearning after the Banoo's approval.
In proving Ellie Bunting's innocence, Grace crashes through the castle and Court, earning a record for clumsiness and finding a lot more as well...
Scrambling through the palace, Lady Grace finds out a devastating truth that changes the very way she looks at the rest of her fellow courtiers forever... One of the Queen's Maid of Honour is getting married.
But Lady Grace doesn't only have to deal with this mystery but she also develops feelings for the good-looking Lord Ruxbury, which makes it hard to believe that he could be the thief...Will she and her trusty friends Ellie and Masou be able to uncover the fortune?
When the Queen's clockmaker, Mr. Urseau is found dead in his workshop with a dagger in his chest and a key clutched in his hand the finger is pointed to his apprentice.
But when the crown of St Edward is stolen from a guarded room, it is up to Lady Grace, Ellie and Masou to find the thief and make sure the foreign guests are not disappointed.