A Dark Mystery in a Dark Time

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very entertaining book and series. I've been reading it all out of order--you find what you find at used book stores--but that doesn't affect it much. The stories all work on their own.

This is the first, and yet it feels like there was another book before this where the characters were born. (Seems like there was more than just back-story behind this, as if there's a missing first book in the series didn't catch on. I don't know. Doesn't really matter.) In any case, the main character and her friends--she's a doctor from Salerno, working with a Jewish doctor and a Muslim man--set out for England to solve a long series of murders that are being blamed on the Jewish population of Cambridge.

This is the 1100's. None of them are well-received in England, but especially not a woman trying to practice medicine. Not done. So they have to pretend that Adelia is an assistant to the men, although she is the one with all the crucial skills to solve such cases.

The mystery here is compelling and horrifying, not to mention scary and disturbing and horrible, and the plotting is strong. Also, the world it's placed in, the world of 12th Century England under the much-maligned King Henry II (who is a great character here), is vividly recreated. (I just realized there's a map in the front that I really could have been using all along. Sheesh.) Good mystery, good history, good characters--there's a lot to like. And while I like the main character and appreciate what she brings to the story, I find her hard to really like. I'm not sure why. She just always seems a contrarian who makes it hard for anyone to talk to her. If there's any sweetness in Adelia, it isn't clear on the page. I can't figure out quite what the author is going for with her, but it may be a cultural difference between us that makes it hard for me to connect.

But I like the book and I'm cheering for the main character, even if I'd never want to chat with her in real life. If you want someone to catch your murderer, though, she's a good choice.

Recommended.

View all my reviews

Where Neither Knight Nor Lady Are Quite What They Seem

The Lawless Land by Boyd Morrison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this. No question about giving it all the stars.

I'd never heard of this until we went to an a bookstore event to see Stephanie Barron and get the last book in the Jane Austen Mystery series. (So good--all of them, including this final book. My thoughts for that are here: http://inspeculation.blogspot.com/202...) Another author was there that I once tried to like but failed, though most of the attendees seemed to be there to see her. And along with them were Boyd and Beth Morrison, talking about their medieval series, now on its second book. We bought both (and got them signed, of course). Good decision.

The action is excellent, almost non-stop, but is absolutely believable all along. It reads like a fun fantasy, but it's all realistic because the research and scholarship is top-notch. That's partly because Boyd Morrison is a professional writer, but maybe more because his sister and co-author is a curator at the Getty Museum and an expert on Middle Ages documents (and lots of connected stuff, obviously). It's a great collaboration. Not only does the action ring true, but the details of the place do, too, without intruding.

Gerard Fox is racing across England and France with a noblewoman who is escaping a marriage to a horrible man, both of them protecting a secret (a good secret--an interesting secret) that her would-be husband and an ambitious cardinal want to use for their own advancement. Fox is a capable knight and Lady Isabel is a very independent woman, but they're still human and limited and vulnerable to the dangers of the time. The stakes are real. The way they use their strengths, especially their ingenuity, to fight their way through and around perils is fantastic. Action. History. A bit of Romance. Loyal friends. Amazing settings.

It's great.

I'll shortly open the second book, but I'm also gonna look up books Boyd wrote on his own, apparently set in the present. I suspect they're also a great deal of fun.

Highly recommended.

View all my reviews

Where It's a Big Damn Topic Alright

The Civilization of the Middle Ages by Norman F. Cantor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is both a comprehensive, logically presented, useful overview of the civilization of the Middle Ages--and a bit of a slog to read.

Some of it is pretty compelling and memorable, but large swaths are real work to plow through. Probably my fault. TBH, the book is a fifty-gallon tank of detailed information and my brain's a five-gallon bucket...

The good news is I've maybe got room for a bit more now.

As with so many books of the type, I feel like, having read it, I'm now prepared to read something similar and understand a lot more on the topic, ready to read the next book. The book helped me build schema, as we used to say in education, making hooks in the mind to hang the next bit of knowledge on. To give the book it's props, I can say that I perceive the general outlines of the history of the papacy now, and I sorta get the contours of the Holy Roman Empire's history, and I begin to understand how the power dynamics of the monarchies vs. nobility vs. church in France and England had different histories, different seesaws of power, different routes through the past toward a pretty similar present. It makes a lot more sense to me now. Tons of it got past me, but it's all there in the book if I wanted to go back.

To sum up, I'd say that I understand the topic enough to prepare my mind for more, but nowhere near enough to explain the Middle Ages to anyone else.

Anyway, this book offers good to excellent information and fair to middling entertainment, so how you ultimately respond to it will depend on your purpose in reading. IMO.

Recommended especially for those who bring a little knowledge with them.

View all my reviews

I Finally Learn Who Roland Was

Swords of Anjou by Mario Andrew Pei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an older book--1953--but it's written in the style of much older books, romances such as those Don Quixote would have read, and I enjoyed it.

It is the story, more or less, of Roland from The Song of Roland. Charlemagne and his army are leaving Spain after forcing Zaragoza to surrender, and as they reach the passes through the Pyrenees, the defeated army attacks the rearguard and kills them all, including the famous Roland. The main army returns and defeats Zaragoza once more. The author adds characters from other tales and invents a few more to add love stories and subplots, making them the main characters in the story, following a tradition (according to the author in the historical note at the end) of retelling the Roland story with embellishments and a change of focus. I like that kind of invention and retelling; I enjoy the many forms of Sherlock and Wizard of Oz and Robin Hood and Cinderella; I think that's a fun way to renew a story, and I think it works here.

The author keeps his characters true to the times, which sometimes is annoying. The misogyny and narrow-mindedness and religious bigotry of middle age men is wearisome. That's not his fault--people were horrible, then as now--but 2019 me wants them to learn a lesson. Alas.

It is a fun story, though, if we can overlook our heroes' painful flaws. They also have admirable strengths. The courage and loyalty on display here are as impressive as the chauvinism is disappointing. It is inspiring to see men (and women, in some cases) sacrifice everything for a principle. After seven years, I want to go home, but I will fight on. I will give up the love of my life to serve my nation. The reader has to wonder--would I be able to sacrifice so much for a vow I made, for a principle I believe in?

I dunno.

So--problematic characters seem to reflect problematic times, not a problematic author. But YMMV. I liked the book, the story, the history.

Recommended.

View all my reviews