The Bookseller’s Tale (Oxford Medieval Mysteries 1)
Nicholas, his sister Margaret, and his children Alysoun and Rafe are rare survivors of the great pestilence in Oxford that caught his wife Elizabeth and Margaret’s children and abusive husband. Nicholas is official bookseller to the university, and his two scriveners are at work copying. On his way home from collecting goose feathers at a local farm, he spots a body floating in the river. The boy is a young student, William Farringdon. Jordain, Warden of the Hall at the university, collaborates with Nicholas in investigating the crime. The next day, students come round the shop and recount how William had been worried of late. One of them, Peter de Wallingford, said William had been planning to take holy orders. He had seen him meeting with two ‘prosperous looking’ men, and he’d seemed afraid of them. Nicholas and Jordain visit William’s room at Hart Hall and discover that he had been at work copying a fine Irish psalter. How had he borrowed the original, kept under lock in the Merton collection?
A mystery involving famous antique books ensues, and Nicholas and Jordain track down clues helped by local tradesmen and farmers, risking danger to themselves.
It’s very well written, and the language is believably antique, with enough mediaeval minutiae to make one feel in the moment. I was fascinated by the details of the bookmaking industry—how parchment was made, what raw materials were used for pigments—as well as details of how crimes were investigated and prosecuted in the Middle Ages. Several interesting characters enter the picture, and the pace of the investigation is lively but not rushed. This 14th-century mediaeval whodunnit is the first in the Oxford Medieval Mysteries Series. It is an easy read and would also be suitable for a younger readership.
