As an undergraduate I remember taking an English literature course in which we studied Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a classic work of medieval literature. All the students in the class were required to memorize the book's Prologue in the original Middle English and "audition" it for the professor in his office. 
In spite of this somewhat nerve-wracking experience, I still find the Middle Ages one of the most fascinating periods in European history. If you too enjoy reading about this time period - and are a murder mystery aficionado, here are a few historical mysteries I'd recommend:
The Good Knight: A Medieval Mystery, by Sarah Woodbury. The Morgan-Stanwood Publishing Group, 2011. Print Length: 306 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $3.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Intrigue, suspicion, and rivalry among the royal princes casts a shadow on the court of Owain, king of north Wales…The year is 1143 and King Owain seeks to unite his daughter in marriage with an allied king. But when the groom is murdered on the way to his wedding, the bride’s brother tasks his two best detectives - Gareth, a knight, and Gwen, the daughter of the court bard - with bringing the killer to justice. And once blame for the murder falls on Gareth himself, Gwen must continue her search for the truth alone, finding unlikely allies in foreign lands, and ultimately uncovering a conspiracy that will shake the political foundations of Wales." - Publisher.
The Unquiet Bones: The First Chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon, by Melvin Starr. Monarch Books, 2008. Print Length: 256 p Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (49 reviews). Kindle edition $9.68. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight, has been educated as a clerk, usually a prelude to taking holy orders. However, feeling no certain calling despite a lively faith, he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris and then hanging out his sign in Oxford. A local lord asks him to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cesspit. She is identified as the impetuous missing daughter of a local blacksmith, and her young man, whom she had provoked very publicly, is in due course arrested and sentenced at the Oxford assizes. From there the tale unfolds, with graphic medical procedures, droll medieval wit, misdirection, ambition, romantic distractions and a consistent underlying Christian compassion." - http://melstarr.net/
The Killer of Pilgrims, by Susanna Gregory. Hachette, 2010. Print Length: 416 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (3 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"British author Gregory again displays her mastery of complex storytelling and period detail in her 16th mystery set in 14th-century Cambridge, the home of doctor, instructor, and corpse examiner Matthew Bartholomew... Amid an atmosphere of increasing tension between Cambridge's colleges and the less affluent hostels, Bartholomew must identify the killer of taverner John Drax, who was initially believed the victim of an accident, until the physician found a fatal stab wound on his body. For many, the book's pleasures will stem less from the resolution of the various interlocking puzzles than from the utterly convincing portrait of an England still recovering from the great pestilence of the previous decade, complete with familiar complaints about the timeliness of home contractors' work and avaricious people seeking to profit from the tragic plague..." - Publishers Weekly.
Mistress of the Art of Death, by Ariana Franklin. Berkley, 2007. Print Length: 400 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (162 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. 
"In medieval Cambridge, England, Adelia, a female forensics expert, is summoned by King Henry II to investigate a series of gruesome murders that has wrongly implicated the Jewish population, yielding even more tragic results. As Adelia's investigation takes her behind the closed doors of the country's churches, the killer prepares to strike again." - Publisher.
The Demon's Parchment: A Medieval Noir, by Jeri Westerson. Minotaur Books, 2010. Print Length: 320 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (7 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. 
"In fourteenth century London, Crispin Guest is a disgraced knight convicted of treason and stripped of his land, title and his honor. He has become known as the 'Tracker' - a man who can find anything, can solve any puzzle and, with the help of his apprentice, Jack Tucker, an orphaned street urchin with a thief ’s touch - will do so for a price. But this time, even Crispin is wary of taking on his most recent client. Jacob of Provencal is a Jewish physician at the King’s court, even though all Jews were expelled from England nearly a century before. Jacob wants Crispin to find stolen parchments that might be behind the recent, ongoing, gruesome murders of young boys, parchments that someone might have used to bring forth a demon which now stalks the streets and alleys of London." - Publisher.
Midsummer Crown, by Kate Sedley. Severn House, 2011. Print Length: 256 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. 
"Set in fifteenth-century England, Sedley's new Roger the Chapman mystery has Roger returning to Bristol, where he unraveled a thorny mystery for his patron, the Duke of Gloucester. Ready to settle back into peaceful domesticity, Roger barely has time to set down his peddler's pack before the duke's messenger arrives with new orders. Roger is to return to London, this time to solve the kidnapping of a young prince and the murder of his tutor. But there are few clues, and every potential lead turns into a dead-end until, by chance, Roger stumbles on a secret with its roots in ancient paganism that just might unlock the mystery. Cleverly crafted, with authentic period detail, an accurate and well-constructed historical context..." - Booklist.
Counterfeit Madam: A Gil Cunningham Mystery set in Medieval Scotland, by Pat McIntosh. Soho Constable, 2011. Print Length: 288 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $14.00. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. 
"Gil Cunningham had hoped that the first time he set foot in the brothel on the Drygate it would also be his last, but by the time all was settled he felt quite at home within its artfully painted chambers. The bawdy house, along with the neighboring property, is offered to Gil and his wife Alys by the forceful Dame Isabella. But matters are confused by an outbreak of counterfeit coins in Glasgow, which Gil has been ordered to investigate. Then Dame Isabella is found dead in strange circumstances, and the more Gil pursues the cause of her death, the more false coins he finds..." - Publisher.
The Alehouse Murders: A Templar Knight Mystery, by Maureen Ash. Berkley, 2007. Print Length: 275 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (18 reviews). Kindle edition $7.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"After eight years of captivity in the Holy Land, Templar Bascot de Marins escapes with injuries to his body and soul. Now on a sojourn at Lincoln Castle, he hopes to regain his strength, and mend his waning faith - but not even the peace of God's countryside is safe from the mortal crimes of man. For what appears to be the grisly end to a drunken row is in fact a cunning and baffling crime." - Publisher.
Nightshade: A Hugh Corbett Medieval Mystery, by P. C. Doherty. Minotaur Books, 2011. Print Length: 304 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Whodunits don't get much better than this outstanding historical... Edward I dispatches Corbett, keeper of the secret seal, to Essex to recover an ornate cross claimed by the Templars from Lord Oliver Scrope. The king also wants Corbett to censure Scrope for exceeding his authority in ordering the massacre of the members of a religious sect the orthodox Scrope had labeled heretical. On arrival, Corbett finds Scrope's community plagued by a killer known as Sagittarius, who has already claimed multiple victims. The murderous archer has created an atmosphere of terror with his apparently random attacks, heralded with the blast of a hunter's horn... The first-rate pacing will have readers racing through the book to learn the truth, which the author has artfully concealed." - Publishers Weekly.
Jester Leaps In: A Medieval Mystery, by Alan Gordon. Minotaur Books, 2010. Print Length: 291 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (10 reviews). Kindle edition $6.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"In 13th century Europe, political turmoil is the order of the day and the Fool's Guild and its agents - jesters, jugglers, and knaves to a man - works behind the scenes to manipulate events, trying to maintain a balance of power. Theophilos, a member of the Guild known by many names, is still recovering from his last mission during which he was severely wounded and nearly lost his life but, in the person of Viola, found himself an apprentice and a wife. But there is no rest for the wicked. While he is recovering on the Dalmatian coast, the Guild approaches him with another mission. A crusade is being launched, with Venice as the staging ground, but some believe that Venice means to turn it to it's own ends. At the same time, there is trouble in Byzantine throne - a pretender to the throne is gathering European backers. And to make matters worse, all of the Guild's agents in Constantinople have gone suddenly and mysteriously missing." - Publisher.
_______________________
Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.
see more Historic LOL
0 comentarios:
Publicar un comentario