Palace of Spies Books in Order

The Palace of Spies books are young adult historical mysteries set at the court of King George I. Their heroine is Margaret Preston Fitzroy, better known as Peggy, a quick-witted sixteen-year-old orphan with experience as a thief and a talent for landing in trouble.

Peggy is not built for a quiet life.

In Palace of Spies, she is coerced into impersonating a young lady and taking a place at court as a lady-in-waiting. The arrangement looks like a stroke of luck until Peggy begins to suspect that the girl whose identity she has borrowed was murdered. If Peggy cannot work out what happened, she may become the next person silenced by the court's secrets.

The setting gives the series its energy. The palace is full of etiquette, servants, visiting nobles, guards, artists, and people whose smiles mean very little. Peggy has to learn the manners of a world she was never raised to enter, all while relying on the skills she developed outside it: observation, nerve, lock-picking, deception, and a firm refusal to trust appearances. A young artist named Matthias becomes an important ally, though court life makes trust a risky business.

Dangerous Deceptions raises the pressure with an unwanted engagement and signs of treason. In The Assassin's Masque, Peggy's personal history comes back into the foreground when her father returns and a mysterious woman appears at her uncle's funeral. The mysteries grow from Peggy's own uncertain status, because she is always both inside the palace and slightly outside its rules.

The tone is brisk and playful, but the threats are serious.

Peggy's narration has the confidence of someone who knows she can handle a bad situation, even if she would prefer not to. The books enjoy disguises, secret passages, formal gowns, and romantic complications, yet they also make room for questions about class, loyalty, family, and the cost of being used by people with more power.

Start with Palace of Spies and read forward. Each book has its own central problem, but Peggy's relationships, identity, and place at court develop across the trilogy. It is a lively choice for readers who want historical intrigue with a heroine who can charm her way into a ballroom or pick her way out of a locked room.