As it turns out, it isn't even that straightforward, but as with all REALLY GOOD MYSTERIES (which is sort of a mythical thing in literature as it usually doesn't exist), there are clues that should alert you to the actual villain, and there absolutely was! Amazing! Lady Grace has three suitors set up for her by the Queen, and when one of them dies and her preferred suitor is the claimed culprit, she tries to figure out what happened. No, seriously, even though this is a book for pre-teens, it really is the best mystery I've read in recent memory. The mystery might be the best mystery I've read in the last five years.

She really has no idea when the other maids are talking about dresses and other men, and in fact, I didn't care that there was no romance in this story because it was simply so well done. That is, she really is either too young to care about romance, but not in a way where the author tells you she doesn't care and she's always casting her eyes forlornly after some dude or another. Lady Grace is a fairly plain beanpole of a Maid of Honour, who sets herself apart by being, realistically, uncaring of men. The setting is rich of descriptions of food, clothing, events, and historical people, but never is it a boring laundry list. I'm now on the fourth book of this series, and that should tell you how much I've enjoyed her adventures. Lady Grace Cavendish is someone completely set apart from these other characters, given that she is 13 when the series commences and she is incredibly likable in first person narrative. There's the Lady Julia Grey, Lady Emily, Lady Arianna, Lady Rose Summer.well, there are simply endless numbers of these lady sleuths floating around the historical fiction archives, and they all blend together in one conglomerate of snobby, unlikable gals who are either casting eyes at their Sherlock Holmes counterpart or are 'flouting conventions' because they are so incredibly original, despite being unbelievably beautiful and rich and etc., etc.

Having tried a whole host of these historical mysteries written from the viewpoint of some lady or another, I haven't, until this series, found one that I so thoroughly endorsed.

Assassin by grace cavendish