1603:The Queen's Revenge

by Linda Root

Daisy Kirkcaldy (The Other Daughter) returns to Scotland married to her lover Will Hepburn and confident that their French adventures have assured the safety of the nun La Belle Ecossaise, the mysterious Marguerite Kirkcaldy. Daisy remains in Scotland handling their domestic business enterprises while awaiting the birth of their child while Hepburn travels from Scotland to the thriving ports of the Dutch Republic and his mother's native Scandinavia. Disaster strikes when Hepburn's homeward bound convey is sunk by a Spanish fleet with no sign of survivors. With the support of her kinsman Sir James Melvillle, her younger half-brother Gil and the friendship of Queen Anne's personal secretary Fowler, she pursues the export business and money lending enterprises, while doing her best to provide a happy environment for her wee son Peter. She fends off the advances of the king's Vice-Chancellor Fowler and her nephew Sir Andrew Ker of Ferniehirst, whose attensions become increasingly aggressive. In spite of her vulnerable position, she refuses to accept Hepburn's death, but in time even she harbors doubts. Then she receives a note from Sister Marguerite exposing the existence of a desperate plot to kill the Scottish king before Elizabeth Tudor dies, and indicating that Hepburn's disappearance may be part of it. Just as in The Other Daughter, the knight Kirkcaldy's daughter in not one to sit on the sidelines. With the help of her great uncle James Melville, Vice-Chancellor Fowler, a mysterious nighttime visitor to her lodge at Kinghorn, and Sister Marguerite's protectors Renee de Guise, Jamie Maitland and the Duke of Mayenne, Daisy embarks upon an adventure that ends in a dramatic showdown in the Spanish Netherlands, pitting Daisy against the king's enemy Lord Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, with the midwife's secret in the balance and the English succession as the ultimate prize.

308 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2014

About the author

Root was born at a FDR fundraiser on the 23rd of April and grew up in a box seat in Municipal Stadium, home of the Indians--Perhaps,not quite true, but close. Her mother missed the fund raiser when her water broke in the taxi, and she only lived in Municipal Stadium on weekends. Then came the Dark Ages when she moved to San Diego where there were boats and beaches, but in 1951,no major league sports. The Padres were Class A, and their field was in the flight pattern to Lindbergh Field. But the dawn did come and she was off to Pomona College on State of California and Union-Tribune scholarships. She graduated and went to Princeton--at least that was the plan. With much encouragement from her mother who wanted grandchildren, she married, and had children, and married, and married, and finally went to law school to be a lawyer instead of being infatuated with them. In her last year, her husband died at 35 of an undisclosed cause and six months later,her adolescent son died of a congenital disease. She took a semester off, married an old friend who had not given up on her, and went back to school.She graduated valedictorian of the class at what is now Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Three days before she aced the grueling California Bar Exam, she gave birth to her youngest son Russ, whose art appears in two of her novels. After 23 years as a prosecutor, the last seven spent as Supervising Deputy DA in the Morongo Basin of San Bernardino County, she retired due to a hearing loss and has been writing historical fiction since 2008. Her debut is The First Marie and the Queen of Scots, the first in The Queen of Scots Suite. She is now working on the fourth in that series, and a 'chic book' crime novel based on her experiences as a major crime prosecutor, Hurricane Camile and the Morongo Blonds. She lived in Yucca Valley with husband Chris and two very giant long haired Alaskan Malamutes with 1/4Samoyed in the mix.

Reviews

[Anna Belfrage · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must admit right from the start that Daisy Kirkcaldy and Will Hepburn have grown into personal favourites of mine. So it was something of an agony to start reading this book only to find Will was missing – had been missing for two years. Everyone else had given him up for dead, but Daisy wouldn’t have it – or if she did, she wasn’t about to admit it out loud. I dare say Daisy Kirkcaldy was superstitious enough to decide that as long as she didn’t say Will was dead there was a chance he wasn’t. This reader couldn’t agree more; had Will been dead, there would have been a long stream of upset e-mails to Ms Root, but luckily there was no need for such drastic measures, even if the adventures Ms Root outs her leading couple through have me gnawing at my nails more than once.

Daisy Kirkcaldy is an excellent goldsmith and informal banker – a wadwife – with a keen intelligence and a heart stout enough to do the things her wits tell her have to be done to avoid a disaster, both on a personal and a political level. Will Hepburn is a throwback on his father, the much maligned Earl of Bothwell, and combines impressive survival skills with wits as keen as Daisy’s. Through Will’s and Daisy’s interaction with the real people of the period, we are treated to first row seats as the dramatic events of the times are played out before us.

I have no idea how Ms Root has gone about amassing her impressive knowledge of the period. Even more, one gets the distinct impression she has sat down for a long interview over warm ale with each and every one of her characters, because rarely have I read a book where the entire cast of characters is so imbued with life. Whether invented characters, such as Daisy and her Will, or actual historical figures, such as Will’s somewhat insane cousin Frank Stewart and Daisy’s gullible nephew Andrew Ker of Ferniehirst, they all seem to pop out of the pages to talk directly to me. Of course, at times there are very many characters, and quite a few just pop in and out again for a wee visit, but the overall impression is that of an exquisite tapestry, where a multitude of colours – each one representing one of the characters – blend with the well-researched historical background into a perfect whole.

Yet again, Ms Root takes her readers for a romp through the political uncertainties of the new-born 17th century. James VI of Scotland is about to become king of England as well, and there are plenty of plots around that all have as their common purpose to somehow reinstate a Catholic monarch in England – or at least in Scotland. Rumours that Mary, Queen of Scots, gave birth to a daughter after her surrender at Carberry Hill in 1567 abound. This daughter is said to have been spirited away to France, there to be raised by her de Guise relatives as a nun. Per definition, the girl is a Catholic, and what better pawn to place upon the throne than a young woman with no experience of the world at large?

I will not do other readers of this book the disservice of revealing more of the plot than this. Suffice it to say that yet again I was thoroughly entertained all the way to the end. I am already looking forward to the next book in this series, so I hope Ms Root is already hard at work. Without a regular dose of Daisy and Will, life would be very dull indeed!