The Queen's Man by Sharon Kay Penman

Sharon Kay Penman is an author revered by many historical fiction fans for her huge, all-encompassing novels that make the past truly come to life. She has written several  books, most recently a trilogy (soon to be a quartet) on Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine and their "devil's brood" of scheming children.

On a smaller scale, Penman also wrote four medieval mysteries, set during the period in which King Richard was held captive by his enemies in Europe, his mother Eleanor ruled England as regent and his younger brother John plotted to seize the throne. I just finished the first of these books, The Queen's Man.

I have mixed feelings about Penman's mystery debut. Her characterizations were strong, and her grasp of time and place second to none. She obviously knows this period inside and out. I particularly enjoyed how she wrote the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine. However, I found the mystery a bit thin and the ending a letdown.

The Queen's Man introduces Justin de Quincy, bastard son of a bishop, who as the story begins has no income or prospects. By chance, he witnesses a murder on the road to London and discovers a secret letter for Eleanor hidden in the victim's tunic. The letter informs the queen of what has befallen Richard on his return from the Crusades. Eleanor, fearing the French king's involvement in intrigue against her son, charges Justin with discovering the truth behind the killing.

The book's first half was a quick, easy read, introducing several possible suspects and motives for the murder. Unfortunately, Penman abandoned those plot threads in the second half to place her focus solely on a hunt in London for a hired killer. I prefer my mystery novels to have more twists and turns that take me on a wild ride, before pulling everything together and springing surprises on me at the end. The ending of The Queen's Man, however, left me saying, "Is that it?" The few surprises were rather tepid and unexciting.

Justin was an appealing protagonist, a sort of "fish out of water" living by his wits and sometimes requiring help from those with more knowledge of the criminal underworld. The supporting characters were strong and kept me turning the pages even while the main plot dragged.

The book did spark my interest in learning more about the captivity of Richard the Lionheart, as well as the antagonism between Richard and John. I have heard subsequent novels are better, so I'll continue with the series for now.

My grade: C+

Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn

Sigh. I absolutely loved Silent on the Moor. I think I savored it all the more knowing it will be the last book for awhile in this wonderful Victorian mystery series. Deanna Raybourn is finishing a standalone novel before returning to Lady Julia's adventures. She tied up so many loose ends in Silent on the Moor, it would make a fitting conclusion to a trilogy should she so choose. In particular, the question of whether Julia and Nicholas Brisbane will finally be together - overcoming his secretiveness, her impetuosity and their stubborness - is at last resolved. Don't get me wrong, however. I very much want Raybourn to write more about this fascinating duo!

Determined once and for all to discover Brisbane's intentions toward her, Julia follows him to the Yorkshire moors, where he has recently acquired a crumbling manor house. The former owners of Grimsgrave, the Allenbys, are a fiercely proud family claiming descent from Saxon kings. However, Lady Allenby and her two daughters, Ailith and Hilda, are now virtually peniless. Redwall Allenby, the last male heir, squandered the family's fortune on his collection of Egyptian antiquities before his untimely death.

The visitors - Julia, her sister Portia and brother Valerius - live uneasily alongside the unhappy Allenbys and a brooding Brisbane. When she decides to catalog the pieces in Redwall's collection, Julia discovers the Allenbys have plenty of skeletons (and mummies) stacked in their closets. What's more, Brisbane's fate seems mysteriously entwined with that of the Allenbys. Julia is convinced Brisbane loves her, but he continues to push her away for unfathomable reasons. She cannot control her curiosity, of course, and as she unravels the tangled threads of the Allenbys' secrets, she comes closer and closer to discovering a horror deeper than anything she has faced before.

Silent on the Moor was the perfect book to read on a chilly afternoon with the wind howling outside, perhaps with a steaming cup of tea at hand. Raybourn knows how to keep me turning pages by revealing just enough information at the right times. She built an almost unbearable level of suspense throughout the novel; I could not read fast enough. I longed to discover at last the dark past tormenting Brisbane. I had to know if he and Julia would find happiness together or be consumed by the dark mysteries of Grimsgrave.

Raybourn has a wonderful gift for creating characters. Even minor characters (and even the pets) had their own fully realized personalities. Raybourn skillfully reveals the inner workings of each character through their actions, reactions and dialogue. The Allenbys were everything a reader could want a mysterious family in a Gothic thriller to be. None of them turned out to be what they seemed at first glance.

The novel's ending was quite satisfying, and if everything was resolved just a little too perfectly to be quite believable, I did not care. It was a delight to see things turn out so well for characters who certainly deserved it. When Raybourn returns to Julia and Brisbane's world, I will willingly follow wherever she leads, even to the ends of the earth in a white petticoat.

My grade: A+

Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn

Silent in the Sanctuary, the second book in Deanna Raybourn's Victorian mystery series, built on the strengths of its predecessor. Raybourn created a vivid, intricate plot populated with well-rounded, believable characters. She allowed her readers to peek at the darkness festering beneath the veneer of Victorian propriety and allowed her appealing heroine, Lady Julia Grey, to develop fully as a headstrong, independent woman.

Recuperating in Italy after nearly losing her life at the end of Silent in the Grave, Julia is summoned home for Christmas along with her brothers, Plum and Lysander, and Lysander's fiery new bride, Violante. Accompanying the siblings is Alessandro, a young, dashing Italian gentleman with an obvious romantic interest in Julia.

Julia, however, still carries a torch for the handsome, enigmatic Nicholas Brisbane, the inquiry agent who helped her unmask her husband's killer. Despite the sparks that ignited between them, she has not heard from Nicholas in months. To her dismay, she finds him among her father's houseguests at the family's ancestral estate, accompanied by his new fiancee, Charlotte King.

Also among the guests are Julia's unconventional sister, Portia; their impoverished cousins, Emma and Lucy; Sir Cedric Eastley, Lucy's much older fiance; Henry Ludlow, Cedric's cousin and secretary; Lucian Snow, a lecherous village curate; and Aunt Dorcas, an opinionated, cantankerous old woman.

As a blizzard buries the estate, intrigues abound among the guests, as Lucian is found bludgeoned to death on the floor of the chapel, and Lucy claims responsibility for the murder. Lucy and Emma are poisoned, Aunt Dorcas vanishes, Julia's priceless pearls are stolen and a ghost wanders the dark hallways. Julia puts her agile mind to the task of unraveling these mysteries before the snow clears and the family is exposed to scandal.

Raybourn once again managed a complicated plot with nary a misstep, drawing me completely into the story and into the larger tale of Julia becoming her own woman, beholden to no one and demanding Brisbane treat her as an equal. I also enjoyed the opportunity to get to know better some of the members of Julia's large, unconventional family.

Silent in the Sanctuary was my third and final read for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. My grade: A.

Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen

I had hoped for a bit more wit and sparkle from this mystery novel, set among British aristocrats in 1932. (Just look at that cover. I can't resist an eye-catching cover like that.)

Unfortunately, Her Royal Spyness was just an average read (so I'll give it a C grade). It was diverting enough when I picked it up in idle moments, but the story didn't leave me in any hurry to get back to it.

Lady Georgiana, one of innumerable royal relatives and 34th in line for the British throne, fears her family intends to marry her off to a tedious, fish-faced foreign prince. She bolts for London, where she intends to make her own way, but without servants, she is left to muddle through tasks such as lighting a boiler and preparing meals. (Baked beans on toast are all she can manage.)

The book didn't really succeed as a mystery. The body of a French gambler appears in Georgie's bath about halfway through, but the novel did not focus on the murder until its final third. Instead, most of the story concerned Georgie's efforts to provide for herself and the endless round of parties among those of her social set.

Georgie decides to do light housecleaning for aristocrats needing their London homes "freshened." Because honest work is considered beneath those of Georgie's class (even those who are penniless) she runs the risk of scandal if she bumps into any of her clients at social events. Bowen played this situation for laughs, but I thought the novel could have been much funnier if the author had viewed her characters with a more satirical, rather than sympathetic, eye. I found it hard to muster up much sympathy for whiny aristocrats with no practical skills or productive ways to spend their time.

The book also featured an utterly typical romance, with Georgie falling for a handsome, not-quite-suitable rogue who might or might not be trouble.

This plot had the necessary elements for an enjoyable social comedy, but without sharp authorial wit, it fell rather flat. Bowen was way too easy on her characters when she should have skewered them. A Royal Spyness was really just another ho-hum story about a plucky, determined heroine living by her wits, with little to distinguish it from other variations on this theme.

(To reiterate) My grade: C

The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin

Rosemund Clifford, beloved mistress of Henry II, lies dead in her tower, a victim of poisoning. Because of traitorous letters she wrote to Eleanor of Aquitaine, and because Henry believes his queen responsible for her death, war threatens to break out between them. Desperate to prevent this, Henry's loyal bishop, Rowley Picot, summons Adelia Aguilar, mistress of the art of death, to investigate.

Adelia travels with Rowley to Rosemund's tower, surrounded by an intricate hedge maze, where her investigation is interrupted by Eleanor herself, who plans to join rebel forces in nearby Oxford. Caught in a terrifying blizzard, the queen, her mercenaries and Adelia find their way to Godstow Abbey, where more murders occur. Adelia must discover how the murders are related and find the killers before civil war breaks out in England.

I really enjoyed Mistress of the Art of Death, Ariana Franklin's first medieval thriller featuring Adelia Aguilar. The sequel was even better - an intricately plotted, intriguing story filled with excitement, horror, pathos and wonderful characters.

For Adelia and for all of England, the stakes are much higher in her second adventure. The country once again faces the horror of monarch fighting monarch, and people fear they will suffer as they did during the war between King Stephen and Matilda, Henry II's mother.

Into this tale of politics and dynastic ambitions, Franklin wove a secondary theme: The limitations imposed on women in medieval society, from merchant's daughters to queens. Emma, a ward of the convent, is forced to marry against her will, while Adelia is labeled both a whore and a witch. Adelia is torn by inner turmoil, as her desire to see justice done for the dead wars with her desperation to keep her baby daughter safe. Her relationship with Rowley (who is now sworn to chastity) gains unexpected depths as they face danger together.

I don't want to say more about the plot for fear of revealing too much, but I have to add the story ends with clever dialogue between Henry and Eleanor that pays tribute to the classic film, The Lion in Winter.

I hope Adelia will have many more fictional adventures. Another novel by Franklin, Grave Goods, comes out next March, according to Amazon. I am guessing it will be the third book in this promising series.

My grade: A.

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

Silent in the Grave begins as a Victorian domestic drama seasoned with a few mystery elements and a dash of social comedy. It gradually builds into a Gothic thriller complete with a brooding, Byronic hero and a heroine whose innocence is slowly stripped away.

Lady Julia Grey, born into a family famous for its adventurers and eccentrics, has convinced herself she wants nothing more than a life of placid domesticity. Her relief at her husband’s death forces her to face facts: Her marriage was unhappy, and she has lost her sense of who she is. The revelation that her husband may have been murdered awakens her latent sense of adventure and launches her on a journey of self discovery.

Julia’s investigative partner, Nicholas Brisbane, who has dark secrets of his own, guides Julia in her search for a killer. Julia soon discovers unsettling truths about her own servants, her younger brother and, finally, the man she married.

The plot built slowly but steadily and became more and more absorbing with each page turned. I read the final two-thirds of the book in two days. With Julia, I explored shadowy worlds far removed from proper Victorian society as she visited a notorious courtesan, searched a gypsy camp and questioned a prostitute.

I figured out the murderer’s identity about halfway through the book, but I got the motive completely wrong and was surprised by many of the book’s twists.

Author Deanna Raybourn skillfully contrasted Victorian respectability with dark desires lurking beneath the surface. I was impressed by her controlled, atmospheric writing and deft handling of the plot, as well as her skill at creating engaging, fully realized characters. Lady Julia Grey already feels like an old friend, and I plan to accompany her on her next adventure, in Silent in the Sanctuary, soon. My grade: A-.

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

Ariana Franklin's medieval thriller centers on Adelia Aguilar, a "mistress of the art of death." Trained as a doctor at the famed medical school in Salerno, Italy, Adelia's life's work is to hear the cries of the dead, not from their mouths, but from the injuries inflicted on their bodies. Through careful examination, Adelia can determine how, when and where someone died.

She is called on to help investigate a series of grisly child murders in 12th-century Cambridge, which the local citizens have blamed on the town's Jewish population. An angry mob has forced the Jews to flee their homes and seek shelter in the local castle, where they live on the charity of the Plantagenet monarch, Henry II. Henry, who relies on the Jews for their tax revenue, wants them exonerated.

I very much enjoyed this unusual twist on the modern forensic thriller. Franklin created a cast of appealing characters, with secondary characters - including an idiosyncratic housekeeper and cook, a stubborn, streetwise boy, and a particularly odiferous dog - sometimes stealing the show.

Franklin skillfully wove together many plot threads while illuminating the culture of medieval Cambridge. I learned about Jewish, Christian and Muslim customs, the lives of knights on crusade and the struggles that sometimes occurred between faith and reason.

Adelia herself was a likable character - a determined woman in a man's world, absolutely sure of her calling - and although I rolled my eyes a bit when Franklin gave her a love interest, that storyline was resolved in a way true to her character.

The climax of the tale was suitably exciting and horrifying. Franklin concluded her story with a dazzling appearance by Henry II himself, once again confounding church authorities while seeking true justice in his kingdom.

My grade: A.

Kathy Lynn Emerson's Face Down Elizabethan mystery series

I began reading Kathy Lynn Emerson's Face Down series in 2006 and finished two more of the books this past year. These enjoyable mysteries, set in the England of Queen Elizabeth I, feature Susanna, Lady Appleton, a sharp-eyed, tart-tongued sleuth with little patience for the restrictions her society places on women. Emerson has populated the novels with interesting people and filled them with details about what life was like in Elizabethan times, from the food served at meals, to herbal remedies, to the miseries of travel. While reading each novel, I enjoyed revisiting Susanna's England and catching up with my favorite characters.

Here's a quick recap of the books I've read so far:

1. Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie. Susanna and her husband, Robert Appleton, wage a classic battle of the sexes when she goes behind his back to investigate the death of his steward. This enrages Sir Robert, the typical Elizabethan misogynist with definite ideas about "a woman's place" (even toward his sovereign lady, Queen Elizabeth). Susanna always stays one step ahead of her husband, which irritates him to no end. My grade: A-
2. Face Down Upon An Herbal. Susanna Appleton investigates forgery, treason and murder in this somewhat convoluted mystery. It is one of the weaker novels in the series but still worth reading for its development of Catherine, Robert's half sister, who becomes a major character from this book forward. My grade: B-
3. Face Down Among The Winchester Geese. My favorite book in the series thus far, Winchester Geese was a riveting read with an explosive ending. Susanna hunts for a serial killer who murders one woman each year, while Robert pursues a scheme he hopes will give him everything he's ever desired ... but that could lead to his ruin. Lady Mary Grey, sister to the ill-fated Lady Jane, plays a major role in the story. My grade: A.
4. Face Down Beneath the Eleanor Cross. Robert is murdered, and suspicion immediately falls on Susanna, who must unmask the real killer before she is tried and executed. This page turner was nearly as enjoyable as Winchester Geese. My grade: A.
5. Face Down Under the Wych Elm. Susanna races against time to save two women unjustly accused of witchcraft, one of whom is a former mistress of Robert's. Emerson enlivens the story with a subplot about Susanna's new romance with the merchant, Nick Baldwin, another terrific series character. My grade: A-
6. Face Down Before Rebel Hooves. Susanna infiltrates a ring of Catholic conspirators who lead an uprising against the Protestant Queen Elizabeth. The book was another page turner; however, I was dismayed by the ugly behavior of two of my favorite characters, Nick Baldwin and Sir Walter Pendennis, rivals for Susanna's affections. My grade: B
7. Face Down Across the Western Sea. Susanna investigates murder among a group of scholars researching England's claim to the New World. The mystery itself was confusing and somewhat far-fetched, but several subplots revealed new depths to familiar characters. My grade: B-

After Western Sea, publication of the series shifted from St. Martin's Press (hardcovers) and Kensington Mystery (mass-market paperbacks) to Perseverance Press, which is bringing out new novels in beautiful trade paperbacks. The next three novels, along with a short-story collection, await me on Mount TBR.

For a list of the complete series, visit Emerson's Web site here.