Murder Most Medieval

✍ Scribed by Greenburg, Martin H (editor); Helfers, John

• Book ID: 108404694
• Publisher: Gramercy
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 176 KB
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

Here are thirteen deadly tales, all set within the dramatic turmoil of medieval Europe. Murder mystery fans and history buffs alike will be riveted by the selections offered by master anthologist Martin H. Greenberg and Nebula Award-winner John Helfers. You'll meet Peter Tremayne's seventh-century Celtic detective, Sister Fidelma, in "Like a Dog Returning;" discover Clayton Emery's take on Robin Hood in "Plucking a Mandrake;" learn about Brother Cadfael, soldier-turned-sleuthing-monk, from the wicked pen of Ellis Peters; and many others—all in the service of investigating crime in the Middle Ages, from the misdeeds of commoners to the felonies of kings.

Contents

Peter Tremayne's Like a Dog Returning is a dip into Sister Fidelma's travels in which she detects the true murderer of a much-beloved nun murdered 20 years earlier bringing justice to the memory of a monk wrongfully lynched. I have no idea as to what the title refers.
The bio at the back claims this story was first published after Spider's Web, #5.

Doug Allyn's Country of the Blind is a sweet, odd tale of the past, present, and future life of a young blind girl with the sweetest singing voice. Life begun in a convent, lost when the convent is fired, and retrieved for a life on the road as a minstrel with Bard Owain Phyfe. My only peeve was Allyn's constant use of the phrase Country of the Blind.

Lillian Stewart Carl's Cold as Fire finds Geoffrey caught between a rock and a hard place when a sheriff arrests one of Thomas Becket's priests for the murder of Johanna Frelonde of Estursete and he has to inform the archbishop. The evidence is against Father Baldwin, but circumstance and gossip require further digging.

Gillian Linscott's A Horse for My Kingdom is another case of greed for power and wealth when a plot is hatched to prevent peace before the battle at Mortimer's Cross. And a gift makes the future bright for a man.

Margaret Frazer's Simple Logic of It All is both bitter and funny as Frazer exposes us to the machinations of court with the verbose use of logic destroying a plot to make the Duke of York appear treasonous.

Clayton Emery's Plucking a Mandrake drops us into a difficult time in Robin Hood and Marian's life when they are consulting a healer about their difficulty in conceiving a child. From bystanders to active participants, they expose the corruption in a small village caused by its mad priest.

Edward Marston's A Gift from God is an underhanded plot to satisfy a spoiled brat of a man who thinks he can take what he likes only to come up against a couple who consider each other A Gift from God.

Tony Geraghty's Queen's Chastity is an odd and confusing one. It tells of a bit of gossip about Queen Eleanor and a supposed infidelity interspersed with a modern email correspondence between rival theorists. I didn't really see the point of it.

Kathy Lynn Emerson's Reiving of Bonville Keep was a nice treat after the previous story and read more like a romance as Sir Gavin Dunnett rescues his young daughter and a young maiden from certain death at the hands of a conniving slut.

Michael Jecks' For the Love of Old Bones throws a number of red herrings into the plot before the murder of Abbot Bertrand de Surg?res, the former Sir Bertrand de Toulouse, is solved. Admittedly, his errand to Launceston was one of greed as his abbey in France intended to take the saint's bones away for their own profit.

Brendan DuBois' Wizard of Lindsay Woods is just plain sad to see how a brother would treat another. It begins and ends with greed when Lord Henry gains ownership of Lindsay Woods but a wizard is preventing his use of it. A wizard who kills from a distance!
There's a bit of a time-travel feel to this. You'll appreciate the ending!

Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Improvements truly is an improvement at least for this manor when the widowed Maude takes a firm hand in the treatment of whores. Go Maudie!

Ellis Peters' A Light on the Road to Woodstock explains Cadfael's actions just before he enters the monastery when he is returning to England from war in Normandy with Sir Roger Mauduit and agrees to stay on through a court dispute Sir Roger has with the abbey of Shrewsbury.

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