eyes.2c Reviews

Sacrilege  (Ralph de Mandeville Mystery #2) by Keith Moray        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Sir Ralph, Justice of the Peace, appointed by King Edward, is going about his business in the countryside of Yorkshire when news of a nun who’d committed suicide reached him. He’s duty bound to investigate. This killing is only the first of a series of hideous deaths as though brought on by some creature from the gates of Hell. Sir Ralph finds himself in conflict over who is in control with the local Lord and the Church. The plot is complex and the deaths may well go as high as Queen Phillipa and her younger son Thomas if Sir Ralph can’t solve the conundrum  A fascinating, yet diabolical medieval murder mystery from Moray set in the 1360’s. A Boldwood Books ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

Murder of a Winchester Goose (Harlowe and Fitch Historical Mystery #6)   by Elizabeth Rose    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I have enjoyed the 14th Century Harlowe and Fitch series thus far but this last novel just didn’t quite match the previous titles. Sure there’s plenty of action and mystery.  I was totally fascinated by the Winchester Goose origins and meanings. In this novel, last in the series, Lady Vivienne Harlowe and Sheriff Zachariah Fitch’s  world is interrupted by murder and dark doings. Fitch’s sister Cassandra, who’d chosen legal prostitution as a living, being a “goose”, had always rankled Zachariah. Now she’s turned up in Maplethorpe, accompanied by her friend Fanny. Cassandra is looking for Zachariah’s forgiveness.  When Fanny is found dead in a horse’s trough wearing Vivienne’s cloak, Zachariah fears the worst. He is fearful, distressed and  angry. Murders afoot and it doesn’t stop here. I was driven crazy by Zachariah’s brother Issac’s constant inabilit...

A Lion's Ransom  (Owen Archer Mystery #16) by Candace Robb       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Its 1377. Captain Owen Archer is called to a robbery. The goldsmiths of York had decided to gift the new King Richard with a golden rampant Lion. Gold smelted down  from collected gold coins, designed and  created by their guild members.  Now the Lion is missing!  The goldsmith, Gold master Harrigan, the current master of the guild whose job it was to finish the article, had neglected Owen’s instructions to store the object in the treasury where it would be guarded. And now, disaster! The quest for the troublesome golden lion will lead to the death of an artist, the finding of a body in river, intrigue, and other associated problems, including the Duke of Lancaster, the Fleming merchants, and reaches back to the Castilian fleet. Owen finds himself going from one crisis to another in his investigations. Another great Owen Archer read! A Severn House ARC via NetGalley....

The Meadows of Murder  (Brother Athelstan Mystery #24) by Paul Doherty    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Once again Brother Athelstan, Dominican friar annd parish priest of St Erconwald’s, and Sir John Cranston, Lord High Coroner of London, are embroiled in a situation that reaches into the highest levels of power and politics in the land.  Joan, Queen Mother, widow of the Black Prince, mother to King Richard, and John of Gaunt are involved The death by stabbing of an avaricious and merciless money lender is a prelude to even more deaths of the powerful leaders of the London guilds. Who is targeting certain guild leads and why? Father Athelstan is embroiled when the killer, William the Weaver seeks sanctuary in St Erconwald’s. William later dies in the church in mysterious circumstances. Athelstan and Cranbourne’s attention turns to St Osyth’s Priory. A religious house with a deep harbor that John of Gaunt’s cogs from Castile can sail into. Matters have taken a grim turn in the priory,...

Feast for the Ravens  (Bradcote & Catchpole #13) by Sarah Hawkswood       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hugh Bradcote, the lord Undersheriff of Worcestershire, and his companions, Serjeant Catchpoll and Underserjeant Walkelin, are called upon when a Templar knight is found murdered in the bushes near to Ribbesford. It seems all might be t ied in with the dealings of Kings and Queens and a  Lord of the Welsh Marshes.  The dead knight had a treasonous vellum upon his person. If true, havoc would ensue. Eventually, a tale of treachery and hate comes to the notice of the Undersheriff. Years ago the wife of the Lord of Mitton, her son and daughter, were killed in a fire—murdered. Prior to this one daughter, Rohese, had been cast out as a leper . This unfortunate woman was not a leper she was a rape victim, horribly disfigured. She’d lived in the forest with the ravens, little seen and when so, thought of as a spirit, Hrafn Wif, the Raven Woman. Was the knight killed by a spir...

Murder at the Joust (Harlowe & Fitch Historical Mystery #5)   by Elizabeth Rose        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A joust and a death at Mablethorpe Castle. The target—King Edward III. The prize—Lady Vivienne Harlowe’s hand in marriage as declared by her Uncle. Why has her uncle changed into a man who won’t listen to her? Vivienne has been hiding a secret. She is the illegitimate daughter of the king. It seems she has three half-brothers who are also illegitimate. We get to meet them as does her over the moon young son Martin who is thrilled by meeting hid heroes. Vivienne finally gets the chance to talk to King Edward but it seems he won’t rescind her uncle’s order. She’s also given information about her mother that she never knew. The threat to Edward is a live issue.  Vivienne and Sheriff Zachariah Fitch are everywhere trying to find the assassin. We meet Zachariah’s brother Issac  who’s  working as a mercenary. Zachariah does not approve! I do like the chao...

Murder at Maltby le Marsh (Harlowe & Fitch Historical Mystery #3)   by Elizabeth Rose             ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It’s the late 1300’s. Maltby le Marsh Abbey is having repairs done to the scullery when a grisly discovery is made. A bound female immured in the wall. Sheriff Zachariah Fitch and his childhood friend Lady Vivienne Harlowe head off to the Abbey to investigate. Accompanying them is a young woman, Maleine who’s decided to enter the nunnery, the Sheriff’s young daughter Starah, Lady Vivienne’s seven year old son Martin, and Vivienne’s faithful bloodhound Grunt. Between the children, Maleine, the various persons and ongoing practices of the abbey it seems there’s no time to investigate. When ghosts turn up to show the way the Sheriff and I gasped in disbelief. I feel I lost a lot by not having read the earlier titles. I was interested to see how it would all play out. An interesting medieval mystery with a some fascinating moving parts An Oliver H...

Murder's Snare  (A Brother Athelstan Mystery #23) by Paul Doherty        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Brother Athelstan and Sir John Cranston, Lord High Coroner of London have a truly horrific problem to solve. In 1358 Free Companies were formed by English lords who ravaged their way across Normandy unchecked, pillaging, robbing and killing all before them, including women and children. Now some thirty years later those same  lords are being dealt with, in appalling and horrific circumstances. The French government has sent a diplomatic party to claim justice against one company, the Via Crucis, but someone is beating them to it. It’s the Feast of the Epiphany and masques are to be held at Athelstan’s parish of St Erconwald’s in Southwark. Later King Richard is viewing a masque performed by the men and women who’d been children taken from Normandy to England at those times of the Free Companies rampage. Brother Athelstan has his hands full governing his unruly flock. He’s f...

A Snake in the Barley  (Owen Archer Mystery #15) by Candace Robb    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Tom Merchet, owner of the York Tavern has disappeared. He’s been gone five days with nary a word. Bess his wife is beside herself. Close friends with Captain Owen Archer his wife Lucie and their children, Owen is as puzzled as Bess by Tom’s absence. Captain of the City, Owen is approached by Will Potter who overheard men discussing Tom, an unknown person called Jules, and a mystery woman, the Widow Cobb. Somewhere to start! It’s 1377. Edward III has died and London has been in turmoil. Y oung King Richard is heir.  The Duke of Lancaster had been governing for the old king. Owen is Princess Joan’s spy here in York. He’s hoping that the unrest won’t reach into the north. Tom is located, in custody but seriously injured and beaten at the sanctuary town of Beverley. The past once more encompasses a good man’s present. Owen and a party of men leave to investigate and fetch back Tom.  A ma...

City of Woe  (Simon Merrivale Mystries #6) by A J MacKenzie            ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Oh my! I’m besotted with King’s Messanger Simon Merrivale and his quests. He’s ordered to Florence. He has a Florentine banking house in his sights. King Edward charges Simon to find the money missing from the treasury, and to place the english Bishop of Dorchester, Henry Stapleton, on the papal throne in Rome in direct opposition to the French Pope Clement VI in Avignon. It’s time for France’s power, including papal, to cease. The main action is in Florence with the famous houses of history dropping from the lips like the Medici’s—the new men at this stage.  I must admit description of frescoes, art works, triptychs, pietas in Florence and Pisa stirred my blood. It all sounds wonderful. Mackenzie takes you there! The mixing of paints from crushed precious stones, the colours and application—all stunning descriptions There’s plots and counterplots, betrayals and lov...

Litany of Lies  (Bradecote and Catchpoll Investigations #12) by Sarah Hawkswood    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Once again Sarah Hawkswood serves up a juicy medieval mystery. Sheriffs jealous of Abbots! The clashing of power and feelings between William de Beauchamp, Lord Sheriff of Worcestershire, and  Reginald Foliot, Abbot of Evesham, has history. It’s the underlying current that ebbs around  their current investigation, the death of the Abbot’s steward, Walter.  Lord Undersherrif Hugh Badecote, Serjeant Catchpoll and Underserjeant Walkelin are sent to uphold the Law and search for the killer. The steward Walter had been found inside a new well being dug on monastery land. He’d been murdered. Bradecote is called to hunt down the murderer and finds himself mired in community scandals on one side and the Lord Sheriff’s underlings on the other. I loved the careful investigations of all three men as they stepped over and around the growing list of possible perpetrators. Alth...

Murder Most Treasonable  by Paul Doherty (Brother Athelstan Mystery #22)   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ England at the time of King Richard and John of Gaunt. The English have a spy ring spread across Paris.  It’s being decimated. Head of the Paris organization, the spy Nightingale, flees to England, to his Master of the secret English chamber. Master Thibault and his Secret Chancery. France has its equivalence, the Chamber Noir. Somehow secrets are being taken out of from the well guarded repository in London and being sent to France. Treason is at hand. Brother Athelstan, Dominican Parish Priest of St Erconwald’s in Southwark, and his friend  Lord High Coroner of the City of London, are in danger. They are required for an investigation into the death of Hugh Norwic, principal clerk in the Secret Chancery. A price has been put on their heads. They are being attacked on two sides, by agitators asking questions about  Radix Malorum, the king of housebreakers, and they’re being hun...