The White Rose Murders (U) (Ulverscroft Large Print Series) - Hardcover
The English have killed James IV of Scotland, and James's widow-queen, Margaret, sister to Henry VIII, has fled to England. Sir Roger Shallot and Benjamin Daunbey are ordered into Margaret's household to resolve certain mysteries. They begin by questioning Selkirk, a half-mad physician, who is subsequently found poisoned. The only clue is a poem of riddles, which contains the seeds for other gruesome murders. The faceless assassin always leaves a white rose, the mark of a secret society plotting the overthrow of the Tudor monarchy...
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From Kirkus Reviews:
A third historical series from the author who, as P.C. Doherty, created scholar-rogue Matthew Janklyn and the clerk-spy Hugh Corbett now introduces Sir Roger Shallot, in his dotage and recounting his past exploits--some wily, others lecherous, most dishonest. Here, Shallot and his old school-chum/protector Ben are asked to interrogate Selkirk, now imprisoned in the Tower, and discover information vital to the return of Queen Margaret to Scotland. But Selkirk is soon murdered in his locked-from-the- inside cell (with a white rose mysteriously appearing by his side), and three more will die before Shallot--assassins dogging him both in England and in France as he learns of various treacheries, conspiracies, marital infidelities--can untangle the English, French, and Scottish line of successions. Shallot's bluster (he claims to have bedded Elizabeth I, offered plot ideas to Shakespeare, etc.) seems more force-fed ``history'' than genuine characterization, and these asides, always cut short by ``that's another story,'' become extremely irritating. Atogether, then, Shallot is far less interesting than that scamp Janklyn and medieval mole Corbett. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From Publishers Weekly:
This lusty, rousing series launch, set in Britain during the mid-16th-century reign of Henry VIII, introduces Sir Roger Shallot--liar, thief and likely model for his playwright friend Shakespeare's Falstaff. Robust and unrepentant at age 90, dictating his memoirs to a shocked chaplain, Shallot tells a tale of royal intrigue, conspiracy and treachery that includes four murders, two of the locked-room variety. He and Benjamin Daubney, a boyhood friend who recruits him as secretary and servant, are tapped by Daubney's sinister uncle, Cardinal Wolsey, to help Margaret Tudor regain the Scottish throne, lost after the supposed death of her husband, James IV, at the battle of Flodden in 1513. James VI's half-mad physician, Alexander Selkirk, who knows crucial information, is found poisoned in his locked cell in the Tower of London, a white rose left on his desk. Daubney finally solves this first in a string of murders after observing the habits of monks in a scriptorium. Clynes, aka Paul Doherty ( The Masked Man ), delights with the disgraceful memoirs of this hero, who sports with abbesses and casts serious doubt on the virginity of Elizabeth.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherUlverscroft
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0708932185
- ISBN 13 9780708932186
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages464
- Rating
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