History Mysteries
Much Ado About Murder, an all-original Shakespeare-themed anthology edited by Anne Perry, gathers tales by 17 top mystery writers, most of them stars in the historical category, from both sides of the Atlantic. Contributors include Carole Nelson Douglas, Robert Barnard, Marcia Talley, Edward Marston, Margaret Frazer and Peter Robinson. (Berkley Prime Crime, $23.95 352p ISBN 0-425-18650-4; Dec. 3)
In Fiona Buckley's A Pawn for a Queen: An Ursula Blanchard Mystery at Queen Elizabeth I's Court, the sixth in the series, the queen's faithful lady-in-waiting and spy, now widowed, finds herself in the midst of the power struggle between Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots. As in previous entries, fact and fiction blend smoothly in an intricate tale of murder and intrigue. (Scribner, $24 288p ISBN 0-7432-0265-1; Desc. 24)
Young Will Shakespeare and his apprentice actor sidekick, ostler Tuck Smythe, look into the slaying of a well-to-do London merchant while the plague has closed all London theaters in Simon Hawke's engaging third outing for his Elizabethan Holmes and Watson, Much Ado About Murder (not be to confused with the anthology of the same name noted above). The dead man's daughter, a ravishing "dark lady," provides the focus for this merry whodunit. (Forge, $23.95 304p ISBN 0-765-30241-1; Dec. 17)
In Sharan Newman's eighth medieval historical, Heresy: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery, Astrolabe, the son of famed Abelard and Héloïse, finds refuge with Catherine's family when he's falsely accused of a young woman's murder. As usual, the author mixes moral complexity and careful research to tell an entertaining tale. (Forge, $24.95 352p ISBN 0-765-30246-2; Dec. 10)
The brutal murder of Abbot Stephen, of St. Martin's-in-the-Marsh, sets Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the King's Seal, on the sleuthing trail in the prolific P.C. Doherty's Corpse Candle: A Medieval Mystery Featuring Hugh Corbett. Rumors of a thief's ghost haunting the fens adds extra spice to this well-wrought historical. (St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 320p ISBN 0-312-30087-5; Dec. 13)
In Deryn Lake's Death at St. James's Palace: A John Rawlings Mystery, the real-life blind magistrate John Fielding (and hero of a historical mystery series by Bruce Alexander) is at St. James's Palace, waiting to be invested as a knight, when a member of the crowd falls down the great stairs to his death. Apothecary John Rawlings must help his friend, Sir John, the only reliable witness, get to the bottom of the matter in this winning Georgian historical. (Allison & Busby, $24.95 274p ISBN 0-7490-0583-1; Dec. 1)
