This most excellent time traveling mystery takes us to the events of February 1567, that Sunday, the last night of the Carnival festivities, when Kirk o’Field blew up into a pile of ruble and Mary’s husband and his personal aide were found dead in the orchard adjacent to the property. Dead they were, but hardly from such explosion. The bodies had no marks on them, no sign of struggle, they seem “to be lying peacefully asleep,” as many eyewitness accounts are reported to have said. Regardless of what really happened, this crime was no doubt the beginning of the end for Mary. However, as she embroidered in a handkerchief during her long captivity: “In the end is My Beginning.” (Her son James succeeded Elizabeth I to the throne of England).

This book offers superb plotting and a deep, dark look into the masterminds that rule our powerful world. It is unbelievable how far people will go in their conquest of either goodness or evil. Dukthas is also a superb descriptor of the era, bringing us inside the palaces, making us watch the famous masques: “They watched as a great shipped constructed especially for the masque about the Merovingians, those long-haired Kings of France who ruled the country long before the Valois were ever heard of” (Page 26); and providing explicit details of the luxuries such as perfumes, clothing materials (“…those popinjays, dressed in their yards of shot red and yellow taffeta, gold damask suits, jerkins edged with silver and white Florentine serge stockings.” – page 20); and delicious foods, that will send you mouthwatering to research history of fashion as well as for a glass of the best garnet you can afford. Such descriptions abound, but what is really touching is Mary, the Queen as a character in all her vulnerability. Regardless what her personality was in real life, her humanity in Dukthas’ portrayal is so vivid, it fleshes her out as unique.

Dukthas introduces quite a novelty theme when choosing the sleuth as well. Nicholas Segalla is a Jesuit priest who lives in Paris, France, at the service of Archbishop Beacon, who was Mary’s real envoy in that country at the time. He entrusts Segalla with a fictitious wife and a servant to take a personal letter to Mary, where he warns her of danger and dark days ahead. What starts as a simple courier mission develops into that of avenging angel, and nothing the more suitable for someone like Segalla who, just like the fictional Highlander Duncan McLeod, has been in his thirties for the past 400 years! Segalla is a time traveler who has lived many lives, and will present himself to scholar Dukthas time and again with solutions to the most famous murder mysteries of all time.

It is always fun to figure out whodunit in a mystery that has been left unsolved by centuries. In "A time for the death of a King", Ann Dukthas presents a very plausible solution to the murder of Lord Darnley, the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. What seems very romantic to me about Mary is the fact that although she had the true Royal Blue blood that Elizabeth I lacked, she was to be Queen of England, Scotland, France and the Isles; she would – should have – been the most powerful Monarch in the medieval world and yet, for some obscure fateful reason…she didn’t get to be. On Mary’s behalf, I find that speaks a lot about her character. When she walked into England she practically gave herself up to her cousin. As Dukthas says at the end of the book, she was very likely tired from running (who wouldn’t be?), tired of all the politicking around her, and wanted to live a life of peace, in a sort of quiet retirement. She would probably have achieved this, should she not have been who she actually was. Mary represented a great danger to the English Queen – or rather the English interests – and had to be given the ax, literally.

Ann Dukthas is the pen name of critically acclaimed novelist P.C. Doherty

The cover art is commendable, showing a haunted Mary in all her regalia, looking over her shoulder, as her husband lies dead in the orchard.

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Created Mar 12, 2004 at 12:26am • Submit your own review...