Bone of Contention: A Magdalene la Batarde Mystery (Magdalene La Batarde Mysteries) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Once she was a wife to a minor lord and mistress of her own manor until her husband, in a fit of jealousy, tried to kill her and she defended herself by killing him first. She ran away and thanks to her beauty became a courtesan but even then two men were killed because of her beauty. Now, Magdalene la Batarde is determined to be her own woman. She is the whore mistress of the Old Priory Guesthouse and her patron is William of Ypres, King Stephen's chief enforcer.

William asks Magdalene to meet him in Oxford where the king is conducting a council. He needs a place to go where he can hold meetings that will be kept secret and nobody can arrange things like that better than Magdalene. She is accompanied by her lover Sir Bellamy, the Bishop of Winchester's chief knight and together they find a place to serve William's need as well as their own. While in Oxford, a series of murders occur and to protect William's interests (and her own sense of justice) Magdalene conducts an investigation in hopes of flushing out a murderer.

She is the grand mistress of medieval works of fiction and her series of medieval mysteries are some of the best ever written. One gets a sense of the era as well as learning how the different classes acted and thought. Although this is a work of fiction, the historical events are very true and make for a fascinating reading experiences. BONE OF CONTENTION will be sought after by those who like the Brother Cadfael mysteries and those written by Peter Tremayne.

Harriet Klausner

Click Here to see more reviews about: Bone of Contention: A Magdalene la Batarde Mystery (Magdalene La Batarde Mysteries)

Buy cheap Bone of Contention: A Magdalene la Batarde Mystery (Magdalene La Batarde Mysteries) now.

St. Mungo's Robin: A Gil Cunningham Murder Mystery (Gil Cunningham Murder Mysteries) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)1493 Glasgow Scotland is fast becoming one of my favorite places in which to immerse myself. Gil Cunningham is a man of law who escaped a life in the Church in book one of this series, the Harper's Quine. Instead he becomes the Archbishop's Questioner for his city and the surrounding countryside. He's a natural at it. His soon-to-be-father-in-law, Master Mason Pierre, is a great help and so is his bride to be, Alys. Each book reveals more about the intriguing world of late 15th century Scotland.
This mystery is fascinating to watch unfold. From how long a body has been dead to telling time without clocks, it's a good puzzle dressed in unfamiliar garments. The characters often speak in broad dialect and some of the passages can be tricky to read. But once the vernacular gets in your head, it gets easier to figure out what was said. Some of the clues will be familiar to readers - how the accounts are kept, is there a woman or two to question, who's lying and about what. And a very satisfactory conclusion to the whole tangled mess.
An excellent read!

Click Here to see more reviews about: St. Mungo's Robin: A Gil Cunningham Murder Mystery (Gil Cunningham Murder Mysteries)

The warden of St Serf's has been found dead in the almshouse garden. He appears to have been killed during the night but there are those who are convinced he was present at that morning's service, and Gil Cunningham promptly finds himself entangled in the internal politics of the almshouse. The elderly residents, the almshouse nurse and Humphrey, her deranged favorite, have all been set against one another by the dead man's scheming — and then there is a discarded mistress and an almshouse ghost to consider as well. Tracing the dead man's last movements between the Cathedral precinct and the shores of the Clyde, Gil is both helped and hindered by his two sisters who have come to Glasgow for his wedding to Alys. Between them they widen the field of suspicion to embrace old friends from the university, a seaman home from a distant voyage, and mad Humphrey's brother. Then an uncanny event followed by the arrival of Gil's godfather, wedding guest and patron of the almshouse, precipitates the crisis. As so often, it is clever Alys who helps Gil find the ultimate solution to this mystery.

Buy cheap St. Mungo's Robin: A Gil Cunningham Murder Mystery (Gil Cunningham Murder Mysteries) now.