From the back cover:
"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 Queen's 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, Elizabeth's favorite stargazer fails to predict the discovery of a skeleton in the Queen's garden (Nonesuch Maze)--and that the victim's identity will call his own innocence into question (I didn't get that at all).

When the doctor's pupil is the (well deserved) victim of a second murder, the concerned Queen enlists her trusts Kate to clear the accused killer of wrongdoing (not exactly). But will the stars align for Elizabeth's prized astrologer and protect the Queen from those who threaten her reign?"

Is that how they put it? I didn't see how the Queen or John Dee were threatened. What I saw was greed, position, & jealousy...

But I did like the book, it was a fast & interesting read.... I even liked the characters. ( )

Murder in the Queen's Garden is the third book in Amanda Carmack's series set during the early reign of Queen Elizabeth I, but it was my introduction to her heroine, Kate Haywood, lute player to the queen.

Although the action is set in August of 1559, the prologue is set in 1541, when Elizabeth (b. Sept. 7, 1533), was a child and Kate (b. Jan. 11, 1540, according to her horoscope in chapter 14), a mere infant. What happened then will come to mar the queen's visit to her father's famous Nonsuch Palace by costing more than one person his life and putting Kate in danger.

Court life may be interesting, but hardly happy or safe. Kate is a very loyal subject -- too bad for her queen that the same isn't true of everyone else in this book.

A figurative skeleton in the closet turns up as a very real skeleton on Nonsuch grounds. Are the frightening happenings during the sceance in chapter eight connected? One thing is certain -- it's true that Dr. Dee's current apprentice needs to learn to control his powers.

There are plenty of frustrated suitors and would-be suitors in this entry. Some I felt sorry for, others not at all. Kate has a couple of her own, although they're taking their own sweet time about coming to the point. Who would be better for her - Rob Cartman, the handsome leader of a troupe of players, or Anthony Elias, the apprentice lawyer?

Kate is asked to set up a special entertainment for the queen, so she has rehearsals to deal with as well as intrigue and mysteries. The entertainment doesn't go off as planned, but it's bound to be memorable.

Most of the action is set at Nonsuch Palace. A few chapters take place in London, where Kate has a missing person's family to locate and Anthony has research to do.

Speaking of research, the reader who wants more than Wikipedia can offer should appreciate the bibliography the author provides in her interesting historical note at the end.

By the way, a hedgepig is another name for a hedgehog. (I remember that term confusing me when I ran across it in another historical mystery.)

After reading book three, I put an immediate hold on my local library's copy of book one. ( )

http://www.girllostinabook.com/2015/04/review-murder-in-queens-garden-by.html ( )

Kate is starting to come into her own as an investigator, but her love life is getting complicated. It would help if Anthony, Rob and Kate could just talk about what they really want.... ( )