Spoils of War: A Margaret of Scotland Medieval Mystery
It’s 1066, and Queen Margaret of Scotland has it all. Just months ago, she was made a refugee by the Norman invasion, but now she’s happily married to Malcolm, King of Scotland, and well into a healthy pregnancy. To the Scots she’s an outsider, her Gaelic still rusty, but her mother and sister are at court with her, and Malcolm has just finished building a new fortified tower for them to live in greater security. As they celebrate the tower’s completion, a hooded woman approaches the queen and asks for her help to find her daughter, abducted by one of the King’s mormaers (regional leader). Relying on her strong support system, Margaret finds the daughter, but then daughter and mother are accused of murdering the mormaer’s wife and flee. Margaret now has to justify what looks like her aiding and abetting two murderers to her husband and his mormaer, even as she works behind the scenes to find the escaped women before the warriors bent on revenge get to them. At the same time, she works to find the real killer so she can prove their innocence.
This is the start of a new series for J. G. Lewis, who has written ten volumes in the Ela of Salisbury medieval mystery series. Lewis has done her research and does a wonderful job of conveying delightful historical minutiae from Margaret’s religious zeal (she eventually became St. Margaret) to meals and bedroom manners, while still maintaining a fast pace. The next book in the series, The Raven’s Price, will be out in February of 2026.
