The Queen's Man, by Sharon Kay Penman - A Medieval Mystery

The Queen's Man
By Sharon Kay Penman

A Medieval Mystery

What a relief after all the heavy, depressing tomes I have been reading lately to pick up a nice mostly mindless mystery! I had read Penman's third of the three Justin de Quincy's, The Prince of Darkness, so before I even behan this one I knew whom to be well disposed to and whom not, but if anything I enjoyed getting to know the folks more.

Justin is the bastard son of the Bishop of Chester, and none too pleased with his situation. What he will do with his worthless life after running away is taken out of his hands when he tries to rescue a man who is being attacked on the road from Winchester to London one Epiphany morning during the reign of Richard Lionheart. The man dies but not before entrusting Justin with a highly classified, top secret, for Eleanor of Aquitaine's eyes only letter covered in his blood. Justin is off on a hunt for the man's killers, not registering at first that Eleanor just wants to make sure her least son, John, is not behind it. Justin finds a home, friends, a dog and a lover in the process of the investigation.

It is interesting that all three of the novels about Justin de Quincy take place during the imprisonment of Richard Lionheart by the Holy Roman Emperor. They are all connected in some way or another to John's part in the plot to rid Richard of his crown so John can have it and show Eleanor what it means not to lovbe your youngest son enough. I enjoyed this intense focus on a relatively brief ecent in history.

I can't say I personally took to Justin. He's okay.. at least he's an honorable man. But either one of his two male allies, Luc de marston and Joans the London sheriff's deputy would be more exciting and fun to follow, no less the mean strong man Durand. Justin is smart but a tad whiny. He has cool friends though.

Given the sticklership of historical novel afficiados accompanied with the hushed and reverent admiration with which Penman is held by all, including me, I was a bit taken aback when she referred to a peddlar finishing his "spiel". I'll have to remember that if I even get jhumped on again for using the word "tavern" out of date.

Knowing what I do about "what happens next" from reading the third book, I thought, "Well I should probably ask for Cruel As the Grave next. Lo and behold, I already had it in its little pale green box just waiting for me to read. So it's next.

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Find more book reviews at the new blog, Brandy Purdy's Book a Week.

The Last Prince of Ireland, by Morgan Llywelyn

The Last Prince of Ireland
by Morgan Llywelyn

The Celtic World of Morgan Llywelyn

I should be exhausted. After reading The Ten Thousand I turn around and read this novel, also the story of a long and arduous trek with a fraction of the marchers who set out left to see the journey's end. The other was various fourth century BC Hellenes. The Last Prince of Ireland takes place between January 1 and January 15, 1603, and Donal O'Sullivan, the title character, started out with closer to one thousand people, but these I will always remember as the individuals they were.

It is one year almost to the day since the devastating defeat of the Irish at Kinsale. Donal O'Sullivan, who had life pretty sweet as a darling of Elizabeth Tudor's English, has burned all his English clothes to become part of the rebellion. After Kinsale he has lost everything but the thousand followers literally fiollowing him north to Leitrim to join Hugh O'Neill against the English as a last bid for freedom. Each day and its hardships, triumphs and disasters, is chronicled in turn. Smaller dramas build throughout the novel, sneaking up on and grabbing you so you cannot put the book down. There is love, jealousy, rivalry, treachery, greed, and heroism. Only a few of the party make it to their goal, but every story has a resolution that not only can be believed, but you want to believe.

It took me a while to get into the book, what with the unceasingly bitter struggles and sorrow, but as the individual stories develop and you begin to pic up the central themes, you are hooked. The expedition is an allegory for the destruction of Ireland's Gaelic history and culture. O'Sullivan himself comes to realize it, and he holds on tight not to be responsible for the collapse of his people and symbolically his world. A disturbing part of the story is how the Irish turned against each other as some hedged their bets by sucking up to Elizabeth Tudor's England and others,. for whatever personal reason, fought to the end. O'Sullivan's people face not only bitter cold, blinding snowstorms, hunger and a raging river, but attacks from both English troops and local bands bent on currying their favor.

My favorite subplot was the rivalry and debate between the two Jesuit priests, each the confessor of one of Ireland's last leaders. This is sayign a lot as I have been awash of late with books with faith and heresy as central issues and am rather sick of it. The entire role of the Catholic church in the rape of Ireland by the Tudor dynasty is appalling. The younger priest in this story, Father Collins, has to spread his understanding of God broadly just to survive with his belief intact.

One of these days I will have to thank the author for putting flesh to the bones of the Irish history I love so much. A friend tells me if she wants to know about the history of a place or event, she just reads the historical accounts. Ah no, I say, for then she misses all the wondrous possibilities of what it may have been to live the history. That is what this book is all about, seeing history being made from within.

Heretic's Apprentice, by Ellis Peters - A Brother Cadfael Mystery

Heretic's Apprentice
By Ellis Peters

A Brother Caadfael Mystery

I thought it was hard to believe there was a brother Cadfaael I had not yet read... and as I was reading Heretic's Apprentice I realized there isn't*. I had read this one, I even remembered specific phrases that struck me the first time. That is one of the things that makes this little volume stand out from some of the other less stellar but nevertheless enjoyable Brother Cadfael stories: the thoughtful intelligence revealed in it.

It is the story of a young man who went on pilgrimage with his master, a wool merchant, all the way to Jerusalem, only to find himself escorting the man's body for the last short leg of the return home. He manages to get his master buried in the abbey grounds as per the old man's request. But his master is not the only thing he brings home in a box. He has an exotically decorated box with unknown contents meant for the old man's foster daughter to use as a dowry. His return and the mystery of the contents of the box prove to be the catalyst for radical change in the household, from covetousness, jealousy and murder to love and intellectual valor.

To be honest, Heretic's Apprentice is one of Peters' formula mysteries: boy meets girl, boy gets into hot water, girl tries to help, someone unexpected proves villainous, and then boy and girl go off fulfilled with Cadfael's connivance. Prior Robert cocks an eyebrow, Brother Jerome acts like the weasel he is, Hugh Beringar and Cadfael spend companionable time sneaking around a little themselves, and Father Abbot looks very Vulcan and says wise things. Fini. If it weren't all so dang satisfying the books wouldn't be that big a deal, save for a few hems.

What this one has that makes me appreciate it more is the theme of heresy. It was a time when lunatic preachers were about on the continent making people do wacky self destructive things and the Church decides all independent thought is dangerous. The visiting canon makes it impossible for Rudolphus to brush the minor questioning aside, so the young man just home from his travels finds himself accused first of dangerous thoughts and words and then murder. Peters does not skimp on the theological debate, and this is so well done it's a pleasure. The glimpse into history and what was going on outside England and into the psychology of the Church's legalism only really needed a skeleton structure to hang on.

* Actually there is one Brother Cadfael i have not been able to find and read, Summer of the Danes.

You + Blurbs = Amazon Gift Certificate!

Take a look through medieval-novels.com and you will see a lot of books. Over 1,200 of them, and all of them novels set in the Middle Ages.

But you will also see that many of them list little more than title and author. We want to fix that, and we would like your help. We will happily reward you for that help!

We are prepared to pay you fifty cents for every blurb you find for a book that has none at all. Your reward will come in the form of an Amazon.com gift certificate. The minimum is ten blurbs, therefore a minimum of $5.00. The more you send us, the more you will earn.

If you would like to do this, you will have to drop us a note and say what books you will find blurbs for -- just so we don't get two or three for the same book. You might, for instance, offer to provide blurbs -- that is one to three sentences describing the plot of each novel -- for two authors listed in Mysteries.

If you have any questions, do let me know. And if you would like to do this, just write to me and tell me which books you want dibs on. I will reply and let you know if you should go ahead. We can only reward those blurbs we gave the go ahead on, so don't get started unless you hear from me.

Write to me at hawthorne@nanhawthorne.com .
Or you can call me at 425-487-1140 -- I am in the Pacific time zone.

The site is http://www.medieval-novels.com .

If you read the book and can write an original blurb from memory, then terrific. If not and you can find a brief blurb on, say, Amazon.com, then great.

We are also looking for information on books not already on the site. See http://www.medieval-novels.com/about.htm for a submission form. These will not be subject to reward unless we prearrange for this.

NOTE: Our site is limited to novels set between 500 and 1600 AD give or take a few years set anywhere in the world. Movies and TV shows and books listed in the "Fantasy, Alternate History and Then and Now Mysteries" are not eligible for the reward. Only listings without blurbs are eligible and will be counted once even if the book is listed in more than one place. You are not limited to books listed on Amazon, but can include books from any source, press, library, etc. Let me know if you need clarification.

Nan Hawthorne

The Wise Woman, by Philippa Gregory

The Wise Woman: A Novel
By Philippa Gregory

It took me some time to figure out this was a horror novel. Up until that point I puzzled over its seeming contradictions and unremitting unpleasant story. Even after getting that there was no contradiction and it was supposed to be grim, I still found it flawed, with a terrifically absurd ending and lots of loose ends.

This is the story of Alys, a foundling left on an old wise woman's hovel's doorstep. One must constantly remind oneself that Alys is only sixteen. She never makes it even to seventeen, and perhaps this explains why she does what she does and believes what she believes. She is about as disloyal a heroine as can be. Every step of the way she not only bites the hands that feed her, but she chops them off, curses them, and then is surprised not to be thanked. The novel opens with Alys fleeing from the burning convent where she has taken vows for the sake of a full belly, a warm comfy bed and the love of the Mother Abbess. She flees without warning anyone else about the fire, then promptly meets and falls in love with the man responsible. In between she betrays her mentor, Morach, twice or more often, then proceeds to lie her way through everything, ev en when she doesn't have to, betraying every everyone who ever helps or is kind to her. She is completely selfish and completely self deluded.

The backdrop of the novel just after Henry VIII declares himself the head of the English church and sends his nobles out to strip the monasteries and nunneries of their wealth and land provides some interest to this odd story. There are parallels between Alys and Anne Boleyn concerning rising above one's station and failing to give the man a male heir. The attention paid to this is scant, which is probably fortunate. The most engaging part of the story involves Alys' use of wax dolls for sympathetic magic, warned by Morach that such dolls usually interpret what they are told to do rather literally and to watch out what you ask for. Whenever the dolls came into the action, the book got more interesting.

There were a lot of irritating conceits in the novel. One is that the the creeping threat of the animated dolls just ends without any conclusion. Another is the noble family's name, Castleton. That reminded me of a friend who said that his surname, Kesseler, meant his ancestors lived in a castle. The noble families had high-fallutin' names.. how would you have distinguished noble families if they were all called after the buildings they lived in? I find having a person who is fat or has a disability in a story just to make it creepier offensive, in this case a dwarf named David. The Catholics running about seeking sanctuary in some Catholic land seem to ignore that there are Catholic countries all around them, including one you could walk to, Scotland.

Finally, the ending, as I said abovem is ridiculous. I felt through most of the last half of this book that Hregory was circling, trying to find an ending, and gave up and chose a silly one just to have it over. I was glad it was too, but not that way. SPOILER: I wonder if Mother Abbess would have been so pleased to share her martyrdom if she had known Alys was pregnant?

If you like ambiguous wicca, wild and inventive sex, thin horror plots and some really creepy wax dolls with almost funny interpretations of their orders, you are in luck. Otherwise, find yourself a different Gregory to read. She wrote many better novels. Lots better.

The Ten Thousand: A Novel of Ancient Greece, by Michael Curtis Ford

The Ten Thousand: A Novel of Ancient Greece
By Michael Curtis Ford

Off my time period again, and again it is for the Let's Read historical Novels book discussion group on AccessibleWorld.org. Plan to join us on Tuesday, April 7m 2009 at 6 PM Pacific and 9 PM Eastern for a discussion of this historical novel.

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This novel brought me a bit of a dilemma, as I have noted in a recent post on this blog. As you know, I primarily listen to books on cassette produced by the National Li bray Service for print-impaired readers in the U.S. The overwhelming majority of the readers they use are top notch. This book is one case where I found myself uncertain whether the feeling I had about the novel was the result of the writing -- or the narration. Someone suggested i speed the playback up. That helped a lot. But until I did the narrator seemed to lend a John-Lithgow-at-his-most-sardonic tone to an already depressing story.

This is the story of Xenophon of Athens, a fourth and fifth century BC author, philosopher, biographer of Socrates, and renowned leader of The Ten Thousand, an army of mercenaries who followed Prince Cyrus of Persia on his quest to take his brother's throne. When Cyrus fails miserably, these mercenaries must find their way back to Greece while fighting off hostile tribes, miserable weather, disease, hunger, treachery, and mutiny. If I tell you this exodus occured soon after Sparta defeated the Athenians in the Peloponesian Wars and that the ten thousand were made up of both Spartans and Athenians as well as other Greek peoples, you can get a sense of the strife just under the surface throughout the novel.

Xenophon's story is told by his lifelong servant, Theo, whose complicated realionship with his master jars on the reader's nerves throughout. He was Xenophon's when both were tiny children and will be on Xenophon 's deathbed. He follows Xenophon kicking and screaming to Cyrus' army, then bitches and complains all the way home. Among the refugees Theo has the only bedmate for the journey, but he likewise pursues essentially a clueless relationship with her. His response to everything about the two of them that he cannot understand he just chalk up to "Oh that's just Xenophon, the big galoot," or "Who can understand women, anyway?" As a result I found it hard to care how Theo felt about much of anything. Nevertheless, when the book was done, I was sad.

The saga is astonishing in itself, with all the torments and tragedies the men survived, though there are few really sympathetic characters among the leaders. About the only characters i worried about were Xenophon, who seemed truly to want to get everyone home in the appropriate number of pieces, and the Rhodian cling boys. Histeria, the love interest, is a complex character you will find yourself reexamining once you know her secret. One thing I can tell you, you will never look at honey the same way again.

This novel could never be narrated cheerfully. I still wonder though how much of my lack of sympathy for Theo is the result of a dour narrator. Theo is dour enough, but might I have accepted him more readily with a better narrator?

As an aside, I will mention that I stopped reading Jean Plaidy's The Follies of the King because Plaidy herself was flippant and campy throughout, but the narrator was downright insulting. I don't know Piers Gaveston;'s character,. no one really does. But when at the last hour before his murder both the author and narrator communicated farce, that was all I could tolerate. I should not be surprised. Plaidy is not the great author she is chalked up to be. Formulaic and repetitive -- did I mention Edward was inclined to petulance? Yes, every page for the past seven -- are a regally unhappy marriage.. like Edward's and Isabella's.