Lady Grace Mysteries

The Lady Grace Mysteries is a detective fiction series about the escapades of Lady Grace Cavendish, a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth I. The books are written in the style of a diary. Each book sees her trying to solve a mystery of the royal court. The stories are set in 1569 and 1570, and there are twelve books so far; Assassin; Betrayal; Conspiracy; Deception; Exile; Feud; Gold; Haunted, Intrigue, Jinx, Keys, and Loot. The first book, Assassin, was published in 2004.

The first three books, Assassin, Betrayal, Conspiracy, and the later Feud, were written by Patricia Finney, and the other books are co-written by Sara Volger and Jan Burchett. All authors write under the pseudonym "Grace Cavendish".

The series is written in alphabetical order leading to hopes that there would be another 14 coming out - M-Z - however, none have been published for the past 4 years.

There are a number of recurring characters who appear in all the books.The main characters are Lady Grace Cavendish and Queen Elizabeth the First. Lady Grace and Queen Elizabeth the first are the 2 people that mainly appear and are mentioned in all of the Lady Grace Mysteries books.

Lady Grace Cavendish is the youngest Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth I. In the first book, 'Assassin' she is thirteen years old; by the eleventh, 'Keys', she is fifteen. She is the Queen's dearest goddaughter and rather a favourite with her at Court.

She is an orphan like Ellie and Masou. Both her parents, especially her mother, play memorial roles in all the books and both died heroic, tragic deaths. 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.

Her best friends work at Whitehall Palace and follow the Queen on progress. Ellie Bunting, an orphaned laundry maid, and Masou Al-Ahmed, an African acrobat from Will Somer's acrobatic troupe, are both very close to Grace. However, they have to keep their friendship a secret due to the vast difference between their stations in life. The only time Grace mentions them is in her daybooke.

Sharp and clever, Grace always solves a new mystery in a short deadline and is quietly rewarded by the Queen. Grace has to keep her investigations a secret, but she nearly always informs Masou and Ellie, and they are her trusty friends who help her with the investigations when she needs a companion and they the sometimes try to do some of their own investigation in there spare time. She is always very discreet about her being the Queen's Lady Pursuivant and her adventures are closely guarded secrets.

...
Wikipedia