FACE DOWN BELOW THE BANQUETING HOUSE, by Kathy Lynn Emerson, Perseverance Press, McKinleyville, Calif., 240 pages, paperback, $13.95

A visit in 1573 from Queen Elizabeth I was a lot like having the President of the United States “drop in” to take the pulse of the people. Weeks before her anticipated arrival, an advance team swooped in to size up the estates owned by local gentry.

Those lucky enough to be chosen would be kicked out of their bedchamber, so the queen could move in her own bed, bathtub, furniture and equipment. She also brought along her own staff of more than 100 people and 500 horses, who all had to be sheltered and fed.

So it’s little wonder that Lady Susanna Appleton is not excited when Leigh Abby, her home in Eastwold, is selected by Master Brian Tymberley as a stop on the queen’s summer progress. Not only is he unscrupulous and unpleasant, he builds a banqueting house – a temporary, outdoor dining area where dessert was served – in the branches of her favorite oak tree.

Murder is a welcome diversion for Lady Appleton and her loyal household staff, author Kathy Lynn Emerson proves in “Face Down Below the Banqueting House,” the eighth in her series of Lady Appleton mysteries.

The Wilton writer seems to have stretched her plot a little too thin this time. The murder is just too contrived. It also takes far too long to eliminate the tertiary suspects and get to the meat of the mystery and those characters that loyal readers care about.

The crisis in this book is not the who-done-it or the queen’s visit but how accusations of adultery will affect Susanna’s relationship with her lover, Nick Baldwin. Will the widowed lady become property again and marry the wealthy merchant to avoid a church trial? Will the couple deny their private passion rather than risk a public scandal?

The death in this installment is not particularly clever – the victim’s neck is broken when the servant falls or is pushed from the platform in the uppermost branches of the banqueting tree. Emerson also takes far too long to take readers past preliminary suspects to get to the most fascinating and improbable one – Winifred Baldwin, Nick’s mother.

Had Emerson found a way to make Susanna’s potentially deadly mother-in-law the focus of the novel earlier, “Face Down Below the Banqueting House” could have been a can’t-put-it-down page-turner from the beginning. It takes 117 pages for her puzzle to pique a reader’s curiosity, but once it does, the author again proves that it’s not her mystery that captures the imagination, it’s her characters.

Judy Harrison can be reached at 990-8207 and jharrison@bangordailynews.net.