Justice for the Damned
In the spring of 1272, Eleanor, the 22-year-old prioress of Tyndal Abbey, travels to Amesbury Priory to recover from a winter illness. Her aunt, Sister Beatrice, is the acting prioress there. Having raised Eleanor as an orphan, she takes on the role of wise and caring guide. To rouse Eleanor’s spirits she sets her the task of unmasking the ghostly specter whose haunting soon turns to gruesome murder. She also volunteers the assistance of Brother Thomas, coincidentally visiting from Tyndal Abbey. What Beatrice and Eleanor don’t know is that Thomas, sent by his spymaster, has an assignment of his own—one that cannot be revealed to his monastic superiors.
As they track the ghostly killer, Eleanor and Thomas are drawn into the lives of the village people. And here the author is at her best. Her characters have a depth and dimension that sets this medieval mystery head and shoulders above others. Her rich understanding of human emotions and relationships turns up on page after page.
But this is a medieval mystery. There is enough historical detail to satisfy the history buff, and it is woven easily into the narrative. The mystery is a good one with enough complexity to hold the reader’s attention, though if you rule out supernatural intervention—which the medieval characters could not—there aren’t very many plausible culprits. It’s not hard to figure out whodunit. Recommended as a worthwhile addition to your collection of medieval mysteries.
