The Hooded Hawke

Elizabeth I #9

by Karen Harper

The popular sports and games of the queen's realm, unfortunately, include treachery, treason, and murder.
 
Elizabeth and her court depart London for a summer progress replete with great manor houses, rural receptions, outdoor repasts, forbidden romance, and games and sport. By royal command, the young Francis Drake joins the entourage. A ship's captain in his pre-glory days, he is desperate for Her Majesty's approval, and she is disconcerted to discover that she desires his admiration as well.
 
However, someone's idea of games and sport includes shooting crossbows and longbows at the queen and her captain. As bodies and clues pile up, the mystery and dangers deepen like the surrounding forests. Both Drake and the queen have cousins they cannot trust who may want them dead.
 
Elizabeth struggles to keep up a bold front for the cheering crowds and her watchful courtiers, but what terrifies her most is that her rival, Mary Queen of Scots, does not play by the rules. With Elizabeth's coterie of friends, Elizabeth must fearlessly confront her foes before she loses both her crown and her head.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Tudor Period, Historical Mystery, Historical, British Literature

288 pages, Hardcover

First published February 20, 2007

About the author

A New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Karen Harper is a former college English instructor (The Ohio State University) and high school literature and writing teacher. A lifelong Ohioan, Karen and her husband Don divide their time between the midwest and the southeast, both locations she has used in her books. Besides her American settings, Karen loves the British Isles, where her Scottish and English roots run deep, and where she has set many of her historical Tudor-era mysteries and her historical novels about real and dynamic British women. Karen's books have been published in many foreign languages and she won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for 2005. Karen has given numerous talks to readers and writers across the county. Her most recent books include THE SOUTH SHORES TRILOGY (CHASING SHADOWS, DROWNING TIDES and FALLING DARKNESS.) Her latest historical is THE ROYAL NANNY. Please visit her website at www.KarenHarperAuthor and her fb page at www.facebook.com/KarenHarperAuthor

Reviews

[Moonmomie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm biased because I adore this particular genre and time period, and I thoroughly enjoyed this entire series of books by Karen Harper. They are written very similarly to Fiona Buckley's Ursla Blanchard Mysteries.... almost confusingly so. This series focuses on Queen Elizabeth I, herself, solving the murders of her subjects. Absolutely fictitious activities frequent the books (Elizabeth leaving the castle in disguise to chase down clues and criminals). But, this is why it is Historical "Fiction". Although not historically accurate, they did hold my interest with their depth of character, plot, and historical abundance.

[Shayshkers · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF'd, not because it was a bad book, I just couldn't get into it. The two star rating is exactly how I felt, "It was okay." The writing is fine, the setting is fine, it's just a mystery book and I don't care for mysteries. I'm big into the Tudor time period so I thought that might be enough to carry me through, but in the end it wasn't. It's not the book, it's me. XD

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have throughly enjoyed reading all of the Elizabeth 1 mysteries. Here's hoping for more.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blind pick book

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

When authors write multiple books in a series it is a given that not every one will be brilliant. Some may only earn a rating of "fair" by the readers. So it is here. This tale wandered quite a bit and the ending was almost an afterthought. If this is the end of the series it would have been nice to weave in the queen's feelings on never marrying or having children. This was a time when religion and society preached that marrying and bearing children were the main reasons that women existed. Not working outside the home and definitely NOT ruling a kingdom. Poor Elizabeth I was bucking all the wisdom of the day by remaining single and childless. It would have been nice to have at least one of the nine books touch on her inner turmoil in much deeper detail. This book made a very lame attempt at it but in the end it came down to "I'm Queen and I will be strong and that's it". The author had a perfect opportunity develop that idea when Meg was grieving over her lost son. The two women, Queen and servant, could have had a quiet discussion about children and husbands (at the very least) but it never happened even though in the other books the author mentions how close the two are.

I do look forward to reading other selections from this author, however, and have added her to my "favorite authors" list :)

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn't my favorite of the series, as it kind of plodded along, and at the end, finally got up to the pace I expect. I do think part of the slowness is due to Meg Milligrew not being herself - she's such an integral part of the other books that her lesser, quieter part this time was noticeable.

All in all, a good story; the whole premise of the series is slightly implausible, but that doesn't detract that much from it, due to the details Karen Harper adds to her stories.

[Thalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seemed to drag out (even though it's only 225 pages). I did, however, find myself very impressed with the author's ability to portray Elizabeth - very believable, just as I've imagined her. She's witty, cutting, passionate, clever and THE BOSS. The end was a bit abrupt and lack lustre, the mystery not really being all that fabulous in this one. However, I shall try another of this series...perhaps number one?

[Stacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually enjoyed this light Elizabethan series. This one was quite disappointing. It did not capture my attention like the others in the series. The ending made me believe that it was the last one she was going to write, so maybe she had just run out of excitement for the series when she was writing it.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I started this book I didn't know that it was part of a series and it didn't matter because it would work as a standalone as well. This book was slow for most of it but picked up pace at the very end. This one was ok and reading it I didn't intend to read any of the others but I am seeing that other reviewers liked the others in the series more so I think I'll give another one a try.

[Merle · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Elizabeth I ages, it gets continually harder to accept the fantastic premise that she can escape her role in disguise with the help of her long-time servants. That granted, however, the series remains well crafted light entertainment with interesting historical tidbits.

[Stacey ˗ ღ ˎˊ˗ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last one in the series to date!

[Beth Levitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the previous entry in the series: A Fatal Fashione. This book focused more on Elizabeth and I felt captured her character much more accurately.

[Ursula Witkowska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harper has a really good sense of history

[Jessica]

A fun read, as all the Karen Harper books I've read have been.

[Audrey]

Harder to get into than previous books in this series

Took me far longer to get into this book, it wasn't as much of a page turner as the others