MURDERS AND OTHER CONFUSIONS: The Chronicles of Susanna, Lady Appleton, 16th-Century Gentlewoman, Herbalist, and Sleuth **SIGNED COPY / LIMITED EDITION**

Norfolk, VA, U.S.A.: Crippen & Landru, Publishers, 2004. 1st ed. Fine in dust jacket. LIMITED EDITION, one of 225 copies [this being #155] bound in cloth and SIGNED and numbered by the author. Accompanying each copy is a seperately printed pamphlet "excerpts from A Cautionary Herbal, being a compendium of plants, harmful to the health by S.A." Susanna, Lady Appleton was a gentlewoman, a herbalist and expert crime solver during the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I, Queens of England during the turbulent 16th century. Eleven stories -- five of which are previously unpublished. New introduction and historical notes to each story by the author, and a checklist of Kathy Lynn Emerson's novels and stories. Susanna, Lady Appleton was a gentlewoman, a herbalist (author of A Cautionary Herbal, being a compendium of plants harmful to the health) and an expert crime-solver during the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I, Queens of England during the turbulent 16th century. It was a time when religious differences were fought with the sword and the torture chamber, and an ardent Protestant could be burned at the stake for heresy under the rule Mary and an fervent Catholic could be executed for treason under the rule of Elizabeth. Susanna investigates a body found in a dovecote, death by Devil's Turnips, the woman whose babies always died by being "overlaid"; the use of a Neck Verse to save a condemned prisoner's life, the mysterious tavern sign of a woolsack, and other cases full of the color and danger of the 16th century.. Signed by Author. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Limited/ Numbered Edition.