So it was with no little trepidation that I began Karen Harper's The Poyson Garden, a mystery featuring Elizabeth Tudor as its sleuth.

In the fall of 1558, Elizabeth, living quietly, receives a startling message: her aunt, Mary Boleyn, is not dead, as reported, but living in seclusion near Colchester. She has become ill, ill enough to believe that the lie of her death must soon come true. Before she dies, she wishes to see her sister's royal child.

With the same guile, determination and wit that have kept her alive all these years, Elizabeth escapes Hatfield long enough to visit her aunt. While at her aunt's house, she learns of an attack on her cousin, Henry Carey. As Henry assailants fled, disturbed by the timely arrival of a troupe of traveling players, one cried, "Down wi' the bloody Boleyns – e'en the royal one!" Though reluctant to believe it at first, Elizabeth soon accepts that someone is out to destroy the Boleyn family, herself included. She also accepts that, as in all else, she must rely on herself before anyone else.

She must find out who is behind this attack, and stop him or her.

To make reading The Poyson Garden a pleasurable experience for any reader, Karen Harper had to balance opposing needs. She had to include enough history to give the reader a sense of Elizabeth, and her past and future, but she couldn't weigh the mystery down with too much historical information. She had to remain true to the historical Elizabeth, yet enable her to be a sleuth we wanted to follow. She had to create a mystery out of the history of the Boleyn family, make it plausible both historically and psychologically, and then she had to weave it into the events of Elizabeth's life. No mean feat, this.

A good portion of the recommended rating comes from the fact that she succeeded. The ending leaves a few loose ends dangling, but this is not a problem. Tying them off cleanly would have been a little too pat and neat. The characters, even Elizabeth to some degree, come close to being types, but this a light mystery and the cast is rather large –more detailed characterization might have weighed the story down.

All in all, The Poyson Garden is a charming mystery, with a shrewd, strong-willed, very royal sleuth in Elizabeth Tudor. I look forward to reading the next Elizabethan mystery.

--Katy Cooper