To Ruin a Queen

By: Fiona Buckley

Narrated by: Nadia May

As the thrilling adventures of Ursula Blanchard, secret agent for Queen Elizabeth I, continue, she finds herself in France, reunited with her husband, Matthew de la Roche, in a passionate but flawed relationship. But when Ursula learns that her daughter, Meg, has mysteriously disappeared, she immediately sets out on a frantic and dangerous search. The trail leads back to England, to Vetch Castle: a grim, haunted keep owned by the enigmatic Philip Mortimer. Soon, Ursula forms an alliance with Mortimer's aging but beautiful mother and finds herself investigating both a murder and an elaborate plot that could cost the queen her throne.

With surprises at every turn and a highly suspenseful setting, To Ruin a Queen is the best novel yet from an author whose series continues to gain momentum and whose heroine becomes more beguiling with each new tale.

©2000 Fiona Buckley (P)2002 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"A heroine to reckon with." (Kirkus Reviews) "Buckley's tantalizing re-creation of Elizabethan life and manner is told with intelligence and gentle wit." (Library Journal)

4/4

This is book four available here. I have enjoyed them and hope the rest will follow.

The narrator, Nadia May, records under several pseudonyms and is excellent in all of them.

Not as good as the first in this series

I enjoyed the first of this series "To Shield The Queen" so much that I bought this book as soon as I finished the first. Overall, this second one is alright but not as well written as the first. There's too much minutiae and rambling on and on about things which add nothing to the story. Also Ursula is a bit out of control here, engaging in acts which are totally implausible during her "CSI: Gloriana" undercover work, especially for a rookie investigator in an era before formal forensics. Even my favorite Audible.com narrator, Nadia May, falters with this reading. Normally a master of different voices and dialects, I don't know what happened with her rendition of Gladys, the derelict "town witch". Allegedly Welsh, Gladys alternately sounds like she's either Pakistani or Jamaican! It becomes a bit irritating after a while since May's command of both American and European accents, both past and present, is always excellent; her narration soothing and animated in the all the right places. This is still a good book but just don't listen to it right after the first one, thinking that it will be comparable. I wasn't so disappointed that I was put off from getting "Queen's Ransom", the third book in the series as soon as I finished this one. I'll just wait a week or so, listening to a few other books by different authors and narrators first.

I Want More Fiona!

Where does To Ruin a Queen rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This series is right up there at the top. I love everything about the series. The reader is fantastic. Each story is so much fun. I work in a University Library and these books are popular checkouts.

What did you like best about this story?

Our Heroine manages to get her and her trusted servants in more trouble doing the Queens bidding. These are very well researched books. You get a real feel for what every day life was like in Elizabethan England,plus an exciting story.

What does Nadia May bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Nadia May is a real peformer.I love listening to her.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Adventures of a spy in Elizabethan England

Any additional comments?

This is a big series,yet we have gotten only four books.I have been checking for a long time now and still only four.When will we get a fifth.

Amazing!

I was on the edge of my seat. Please put the rest of the series on here!

4 books down 2 or 3 more

To go in series. I enjoy reading this book series about the adventures of Ursula :) but I’m a big fan of history based historical fiction .
It can tend to drag for a chapter or two here and there but always picks back up. These books remind me of the brandon presscot 3? Book series :)