Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

Seventeen year old Rosamund Walsingham lives a quiet life at her family’s country manor. With her parents dead and her eldest brother off with his tramp-of-the-moment, she is largely dependent upon her other brother Thomas. But Rosamund’s quiet days in the country are about to come to an end when she is summoned to court by her powerful kinsman, Francis, the Queen’s Secretary of State. Rosamund is excited and nervous and quickly discovers that her cousin’s "favor" of getting her a place as a junior maid to the queen does not come without a price – her talent for drawing provides the queen’s “spymaster” with a new way of gathering information.


Rosamund’s arrival at court brings her the jealousy of the queen’s other maids and the attention of two courtiers – Will Creighton and Arnaud de Vaugiras. In between fulfilling her duties to the queen and to Francis, Rosamund finds time to practice the art of courtly flirtation and in a moment controlled more by hormones than logic, she finds herself in the middle of a minor scandal that gets her banished from court. But her cousin still has work for her to do and - Rosamund is sent to spy on Mary, Queen of Scots as part of Francis’s plan to trap her in a conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth.

Although I appreciated the basic premise behind All the Queen’s Players and that it focused on some lesser known historical characters, I thought the writing was very uneven. It took forever to “set the stage” for the story and the first 100 pages or so weren’t very interesting. Then the story picked up a little and I found the extent of Walsingham’s network and the types of people he often employed very interesting, especially as the Babington plot takes shape. But the ending felt very rushed – almost in a “let’s get this over with” kind of way. The addition of Arnaud as someone with an interest in Rosamund and the final resolution of that story line was weak at best and left me scratching my head wondering what was the point.

Rosamund starts off as rather naïve and is uncomfortable with the work she is asked to do. But during her stay with Mary, she seems to wise up a little bit, although she is still bothered by what she is doing. As she later considers her role in Mary’s downfall, she realizes that she has been just another one of the players on her cousin’s stage but she can’t help but admire Mary’s strength and grace. In reference to the book’s title, Feather employs a theatre backdrop at times and the addition of the playwright Christopher Marlowe who also becomes employed by Walsingham. And while her portrayal of Marlowe as a homosexual did not bother me, Rosamund’s acceptance of it did as likely being too modern for the time, especially for a sheltered girl who grew up in the country. There is some sex in the book, but it’s not overdone or over the top.

The voice of experience:  “Take my advice and beware of particularly energetic nights when a day in the saddle is to follow.” One of the court ladies to Rosamund as they prepare to go on a hunt.

Rating: Average (2.5 Stars)


In case the FTC asks: I got this one from the library.