To Kill a Queen

Written by Amie McNee
Review by Niki Kantzios

In Elizabethan London, Jack is a transvestite girl whose father is the local king of crime, but she has gone straight and is now a detective, helping to send her former associates to the gallows. When there is an attempt upon the queen’s life, Walsingham, the royal spymaster, sets wheels in motion to prove it is a Catholic plot by the Scots, hoping thereby to stop Her Majesty’s marriage to a French Catholic prince.

Along with her sidekicks Ben, the cheerfully bumbling justice of the peace; Damian, the coroner, who is a surrogate father to the “boy”; and Jenny, the fearless barmaid, Jack gets drawn into the investigation, and her knowledge of the underworld proves valuable. Only, nothing—but nothing—is what it seems. This is a super romp of an adventure mystery, told in first person, with an eccentric cast of characters that even draws in Richard Burbage’s players. The language is a mix of forsoothery and modern slang, but it works just fine—you have to let yourself have fun with this one and its olfactory tour of the 16^th-century capital. I absolutely guarantee that you will not see coming the surprise fireworks of revelation at the end.

For fans of funny, fast-paced whodunnits that confound their best efforts to guess the perp, To Kill a Queen is definitely recommended.