eyes.2c Reviews

Devil's Gambit  (King Fool’s Mystery #4) by Jeri Westerson   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Once more King Henry VIII’s jester, Will Somers finds himself assisting a lady-in-waiting in a somewhat precarious situation. Lady Margaret Loy has accompanied Anne of Cleeves from Germany to England hoping to marry one of Henry’s courtiers, Sir Francis Heron. His father, Lord Humphrey Heron won’t allow this unwelcome match. Margaret has no dowry to speak of, nothing to enhance the union.  Margaret persuades Will to present the king with a document to sign stating Henry was in favor of the marriage. Henry refuses. Will goes to Lady Margaret’s rooms to give her the bad news, only to find matters have taken a turn for the worst. She’s found her courtier’s father in her rooms. He’s been strangled! Margaret begs Will to help her hide the body. He reluctantly does. Why didn’t Will leave well enough alone?! Balancing his life between his King, Harry or rather Henry, depending on Henry’s mood, his wife...

The Ruffler's Child  (Thomas the Falconer  Mysteries #1) by John Pilkington           ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is the first in The Falconer mystery series set in turbulent Elizabethan times. A body in the forest, and a bear set the scene.  Thomas and his falcons a highlight. Sent to London to buy some special gyrfalcons along with Lady Margaret who is attending her dead brother’s affairs, Thomas uncovers threats against his mistress. He nearly loses his life as he tries to solve Margaret’s problems. The two grow closer for one night, but they are mistress and servant. That is all they can be. I loved the explanation of the various stratas of society. The masterless folks—the Vagrom, the Abahrams, the people at the market, the beggars, those at court—all very colorful and enlivening. Sexual tensions undergirding the relationship between Lady Margaret and Thomas add an extra oomph to the storyline. I’m so ready to read others in this series. A Boldwood Book...

Rebellious Grace  (King’s Fool Mystery #3) by Jeri Westerson     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The perilous life of Henry VIII‘s court jester Will Somers continues to be complex. Will himself is both discerning, convoluted and endearing. Will’s devotion to Henry and the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth is real. His struggles with the love he has for Marion his wife and for Nicholas Patchett, Lord Hammond. A quandary! He loves them both and yet he has said to Marion he will stay true to his love for her, not love his paramours. Ahh! Will is a torn man. Geoffrey Payne, a courtier close to Queen Jane (Seymour) has been brutally killed, buried and then dug up again and his body disembowelled. Will has declared he will find the murderer. We are led down an intricate path, part of which includes Queen Jane’s fool, Janie Foole.  Westerson’s note on the role of fools is fascinating reading. I enjoyed Will’s interactions with the Windsor Herald of Arms in Ordinary, Charles Wriothesley,  an o...

Death Comes in Threes  (A Bloody Mary Tudor Mystery #9) by Michael Jecks     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️    Ah Jack! Our beloved, narcissistic opportunist, devoted mostly to his own survival.  Because Jack does have his moments of wanting to be more than he is. Alas those moments are few and always end up differently to how he planned. His latest misadventures takes up sixteen parts veering between Jack’s point of view and John Blount’s chronicles. Queen Mary is supposedly pregnant and spymasters serving Mary, Elizabeth and Philip are plotting, weaving plans for what comes next. Even those on the same side are confusing each other as they move their  strategies forward in  secret. And our unlikely, somewhat loveable anti hero Black Jack is caught between them all. Jack’s accused of murdering three people, of course all is happenstance. When he innocently tries to clear himself he trips over so many plots it makes his head spin, which he’s doing already due to the...

Murdering The Messenger  (Bloody Mary Tudor Mystery #8) by Michael Jecks         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Jack, Jack, Jack! In between playing the gallant (in his own eyes more likely than not), escaping various complications he’s unwittingly set in motion, being a self confessed man of great appeal to the ladies, and the assassin for John Blount, (who works for Elizabeth) … well, there’s never a dull moment! Jack more falls into situations than by any shrewd planning, and then has the devil’s own luck when pulling his irons out of the fire. He’s moved into a new neighbourhood to escape the dunning of the tavern keeper Pudge who had provided food and drink for a party Jack didn’t throw. More complications! Attending church (as one did in those days of Mary Tudor’s reign) Jack spies a lovely lady, Rachael Nailor, and fortuitously she arranges to meet with him. Only it’s not his charm she’s drawn to, oh no! She works for Elizabeth and Jack has been ordered to accompany her on ...

Courting Dragons (A King’s Fool Mystery #1) by  Jeri Westerson         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A brilliant new series from the ever masterful spinner of tales, Jeri Westerson. Set in the court of Henry VIII, at the time when Henry is trying to put the Queen, Catherine of Aragon, aside and marry Lady Anne Boleyn or here known as the Lady Nan Bullen (read Westerson’s commentary at the end for further information about the spelling of Bullen). Will Somers is Henry’s court jester. (He was a real person historically in Henry’s court btw) A complicated man who can move through the court, unseen and yet not. A man who learns the secrets of the court, even as he has his own. Will is bisexual. He has one true love, Marion, a court seamstress / embroiderer, the illegitimate child of Lord Robert Heyward. He has various alliances of the moment with men. One is the Spanish contingent, Don Gonzalo de Yascar. When Gonzalo is found murdered, Will  investigates. There are so many ...

The Moorland Murderers (Bloody Mary Mystery #6) by Michael Jecks            ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Once again pseudo assassin, card sharp and self proclaimed ladies man, Jack Blackjack finds himself caught in a mire of chance and design. It’s 1556 and the word’s abroad that Lady Elizabeth Tudor’s comptroller Sir Thomas Parry has been taken to the Tower under orders from Queen Mary. Jack’s worried that he might be caught up in the purge as his master and employer John Blount works for Parry. Jack’s survival, being always front and center of his concerns, has him fleeing to France via a circuitous route. He takes to the road ahead of rumour about his imminent capture by the Queen’s Officers, and we catch up with him at the Green Cock Inn at Okehamptom, Devonshire on the edge of Dartmoor. Of course, things go haywire. (When do they ever not?) Jack ends up being accused of murdering a miner. Not just any miner but Daniell Vowell, leader of a powerful miner’s group. J...

Forest of Secrets (Ursula Blanchard Mystery #19) by Fiona Buckley                ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1586, Ursula Stannard (Blanchard) once again does Sir Francis Walsingham’s bidding—and by extension her half sister’s, Elizabeth Tudor. This time she’s investigating rumours of pagan rites in a forest (brought to Ursula’s attention by a dame from the remote village of Chenston), and how that might or might not relate to Walsingham’s enquiries and lures around rumours of a plot being hatched by Mary Stuart against her cousin Elizabeth. Ursula is pointed straight towards Mary, albeit via a devious path. Of course she’s also once more overseeing the education of her newest companion, a young gentlewoman of a Puritan background whom we met in the last story. I find I don’t really trust this particular young woman, Mildred Gresham. She is too eager to walk her own path, often unwisely. Like the last adventure, we end up deep in the forests of England, in an out o...

Death Comes Hot  (A Bloody Mary Mystery #5) by Michael Jecks       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ That's Jack Blackjack who's as an assassin in the pay of John Blount, who calls Thomas Parry master. Through an inordinate amount of bungling normally Blackjack ends up with someone else killing the mark. Blackjack takes the credit, which he's mostly happy to do as its lifted him out of poverty. He's become a man of substance, if a servant makes one that. The balancing act, the delusions that Jack juggles are all part of the black comic figure. Still when he finally does kill someone, even that has an awful comedic side.  This time jack finds himself in the thick of politics with a whiff of heresy. Not a comfortable place to be. I must admit too becomming quite dizzy by Jack's tortured thinking as he tries to puzzle out the where's and whyfores, looking for illumination about who the enemy is. At times I felt like I'd sipped more than my fair share of questionable wine just like Jac...

Rebellion's Message (A Bloody Mary Mystery #1)   by Michael Jecks     I first reviewed Rebellion's Message in 2016. Before going any further, I must say I do like the cover for this new digital edition. I loved Jack Blackjack when I first met him and have continued to shake my head over his wayward journey. He's somewhat like that annoying younger brother, always walking deeper and deeper into trouble, and then wondering how on earth things had come to pass. Thankfully, like a cat with nine lives, he seems to land on his feet, even if the landing is somewhat shaky. Jack being Jack, and me being me, I am incorporating parts of my review from two years ago.  Rebellion's Message was the first in a Tudor mystery series rife with "intrigue, deadly court politics, a roguish, likeable anti hero, and murder-- all centered on the firm historical detail of the period during the rebellion of 1554 lead by Jane Grey supporters against Queen Mary." An "engaging...

Dead Don't Wait, The (A Bloody Mary Mystery #4 )  by Michael Jecks.               It's 1555 and Jack our bumbling non assassin is back. A fellow who has ideas above himself, who's only interested in swiving, the cut of his coat, drinking wine' keeping his head on his shoulders, and who more often that not gets taken in by a soft word from the ladies. I am constantly exasperated by Jack but can't seem to stop turning the pages to see what situation he falls into next. He seems to always go from the frying pan into the fire and just as he's about to be burnt alive, he miraculously lands on his feet. More by luck than intent. A priest has been killed at St Botolph just outside of London. Jack has been accused of the murder and is called on by the coroner Sir Richard of Bath to accompany him to the crime scene, to be present at the inquest. Even the getting to St Botolph's is so essentially Jackish that one can't help to be both amused and appal...

An Air of Treason: A Sir Robert Carey Mystery (Sir Robert Carey Series) by P F Chisholm Oxford, 1593, and courtier Sir Robert Carey, youngest son of The Lord Chamberlain, Baron Hunsdon,  still has not received his warrant from his cousin (on the legitimate and the illegitimate sides) Queen Elizabeth. Queen Elizabeth is progressing to Oxford which is frantically crowded and preparing for her much  anticipated visit. Carey is thinking of ways to present himself to the Queen, when she sends for him. When your Queen calls? What can you do but obey! When your Queen changes your plans and her promises what can you do but acquiesce. Elizabeth charges Carey with solving a thirty year old mystery--that of the death of the former wife of Dudley, the Earl of Leicester. Amy Dudley (nee Robsart) who appeared to have  fallen down stairs to her death. Carey is by himself in Oxford. Dodd is still down south and Carey is forced to hire a new serving man, Hughie Tyndale. He's ...