I love, love, love the Elizabethan period! The music, the clothes, the houses,
the sense of adventure and discovery, the poetryโit's all so exciting. Writing
the Kate Haywood Mysteries lets me live in the time period for a few hours every
day, see it through Kate's eyes, talk to Queen Elizabeth, sweep around in
farthingales and ruffsโand then come back to my own cozy house, with running
water and electricity. The best of both worlds!
My love of the Elizabethan era started when I was about ten years old, and found
a magical box full of paperbacks at my grandmother's house one summer. That box
was full of wonders, and started me on a lifelong love of reading and history.
Jane Austen's
Emma;
Jane Eyre;
Little Women; 1960s
Harlequins set in mysterious places with names like Cornwall, where young,
innocent secretaries encountered dark, brooding millionaires; Victoria Holt
Gothics with crumbling castles and dark, brooding dukes (who may or may not have
killed their wives). These treasures kept me gloriously busy for weeks.
One of the best finds was a Barbara Cartland story called
Elizabethan
Lover. I was no newcomer to Cartland novels by then. My grandmother had an
endless supply of those thin little paperbacks, full of wide-eyed heroines in
fabulous gowns, more dark, broody dukes, and all kinds of interesting historical
tidbits. From a literary point-of-view, they wereโwell, not great. But they
always sent me to the library in search of historical non-fiction about whatever
the setting of the last novel wasโVictorian London theater, the Indian Mutiny,
gypsies, horse training, Waterloo.
But
Elizabethan Lover was my all-time favorite. The wide-eyed heroine
(named Elizabeth, I think?), was quite feisty compared to most of Cartland's
stammering teenaged heroines, liked to shoot a bow and arrow and climb trees.
She was in love with the hero (dark and broody, of course), who is about to set
off on a voyage to the New World, and isโgasp!--betrothed to the heroine's
beautiful sister. Who wants to run away to France to be a nun. The heroine,
for reasons I can't remember, disguises herself as a boy and stows away on the
hero's ship for the voyage. I loved so many things from that storyโthe details
of the ship's journey, the visit to court after they return (and the heroine
goes to be maid-of-honor to the queen), the fashions and houses, details of
business arrangements, betrothals, and religious politics.
It led me to dressing up as Anne Boleyn for a fifth grade book report (my mom is
a genius at sewing costumes!), and looking into every aspect of Queen
Elizabeth's life and reign. (It also led to some seriously unrealistic dating
expectations in high school, but that's another story...)
In
MURDER IN
THE QUEEN'S GARDEN, Kate has to solve a crime in the beautiful mazes and
gardens of Nonsuch Palace, in the middle of an idyllic summer interlude.
There's magic, thanks to the queen's astrologer Dr. Dee, dancing, jousting, some
great gowns, and maybe even a bit of romance. I hope you enjoy visiting Nonsuch
as much as I did! There's more โbehind the bookโ info on my
website.
If you could visit any time period, what would it be???
About MURDER IN THE QUEEN'S GARDEN
1559. Elizabeth has been on the throne for six months, and life in England
seems newly golden. But for the Royal Court, murder and betrayal are foretold in
the stars...
Kate Haywood, the young queenโs personal musician, has been keeping busy playing
for a merry round of summer parties where famed astrologer Dr. John Dee and his
fantastic horoscopes are all the rage. However, Elizabethโs favorite stargazer
fails to predict the discovery of a skeleton in the queenโs gardenโand that the
victimโs identity will call his own innocence into question.
When the doctorโs pupil is the victim of a second murder, the concerned queen
enlists her trusted Kate to clear the accused killer of wrongdoing. But will the
stars align to light Kateโs path through a tangled thicket of treachery to save
Elizabethโs prized astrologer and protect the queen from those who threaten her
reign?
About Amanda Carmack
Amanda has been in love with the Tudors ever since an accidental viewing of
Anne of the
Thousand Days on TV as a kid! Now she just wishes she could live with them
all the time--but there has to be time for writing about them too.
She also writes as Amanda McCabe and Laurel McKee, and her books have been
nominated for many awards, including the RITA Award, the Romantic Times
BOOKReviews Reviewers' Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers
Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Oklahoma with a menagerie of
two cats, a Pug, and a very bossy miniature Poodle, along with far too many books.
When not writing or reading, she loves taking dance classes, yoga, collecting
cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network--even though she doesn't
cook.
© 2003-2026