The Queen's Dwarf

A seventeenth-century English teenage dwarf is tasked with spying on a beautiful queen in this historical novel based on a true story. It's 1629, and King Charles I and his French queen Henrietta Maria have reigned in England for less than three years. Young dwarf Jeffrey Hudson is plunged into the Stuart court when his father sells him to the most hated man in England—the Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham trains Jeffrey to be his spy in the queen's household, hoping to gain intelligence that will help him undermine her influence with the king. Desperately homesick, Henrietta Maria surrounds herself with her "Royal Menagerie of Freaks and Curiosities of Nature"—a "collection" consisting of a giant, two other dwarves, a rope dancer, an acrobat/animal trainer and now Jeffrey, who is dubbed "Lord Minimus." Dropped into this family of misfits, Jeffrey must negotiate a labyrinth of court intrigue and his own increasingly divided loyalties. For not even the plotting of the Duke nor the dangers of a tumultuous kingdom can order the heart of a man. Full of vibrant period detail, Ella March Chase's The Queen's Dwarf is a thrilling and evocative portrait of an intriguing era. Praise for The Queen's Dwarf "A feast for readers told by a masterful author. The seemingly fantastic—yet historically accurate—collection of characters will tug at your heart." —Tasha Alexander, New York Times–bestselling author of The Counterfeit Heiress "Enthralling, unexpected, and mysterious . . . a fascinating tale of an unlikely hero and his companions' hunt for a royal assassin, even as an infamous love affair threatens to overturn the kingdom. The Queen's Dwarf proves that Ms. March-Chase has a very bright future in historical fiction!" —C.W. Gortner, author of The Tudor Conspiracy "Rich in detail and brimming with intriguing characters, Chase's novel will please fans of historical fiction." — Kirkus Reviews