What do You think about The Queene's Christmas (2004)?
I had just read a heavy book so I wanted a light read. It was that. however, as a mystery, I didn't really care who the murderer was. Not while I was reading and not at the end when it was revealed. I couldn't have cared less. The side love triangle of Meg/Ned/Jenks was mildly interesting but not explored deeply enough or resolved. I guess that's because this is a series. This was the first book I've read of this author, and I'm not likely to read anymore. It was alright, but when I read a mystery, I want to be following clues, making guesses, and the mystery seemed to be pushed aside.
—Katy M
This was my first book in the series and while it's not the first I found the characters easy enough to follow. Set at the time of Elizabeth I's court it was interesting to read about how the celebrated the twelve days of Christmas. One of the reasons I read these types of mysteries. The only problem I have with these (using historical figures as detectives) is you can usually cut out some of the suspects just because they are actual historical people and so unless they did indeed murder someone then you know it's not them. Overall it was a pretty decent mystery, it read well and quickly, and I enjoyed the overall story. Given time I will look up more, perhaps more recent books in the series.
—Tom
This book reads a bit like Karen Harper wrote it whilst reading “The Bumper Book of Metaphors and Similes for Keystage 2”! From such gems as 'his ruddy glow went white as bleached linen' to 'happy as a hawk in a windstorm', together with an enormous helping of the phrase ‘s blood to show us that the Queen wasn’t a total goody-goody!That aside, it was quite a good yarn, if a little predictable - I got the murderer quite early on in the book, albeit that my feeling was based on a hunch rather than any clues. I think the fact it took me three weeks to read it speaks volumes and I don’t think I’ll be rushing to buy any more of the ‘Elizabeth I Mysteries’!
—Janet
