Tyndal Priory was part of the real Order of Fontevraud. This particular Order had both men and women and both were ruled by a woman. I was not aware that there were Orders such as this one. The story started out well. The pace was fast and the introduction of the characters was fascinating. They all had interesting foibles and one of the priests was intersex. No one knew this until he ended up dead and an examination of his body showed that he had both female and male genitals. However, the middle of the book was slow. Nothing much happened other than Eleanor interviewed the other characters. No real information about the crime was revealed here so it was a little boring. Toward the end, the novel picked up as Eleanor discovers more and more truths about those who lived in the Priory. The ending was a surprise.
What I found unbelievable is that two of the characters were aware that there were people who were intersex, or hermaphrodite as they were called in those days, and that it was OK for them to marry as long as the spouse knew about the condition. This doesn't sound 13th century to me. The Author's Note at the end of the book gives her views on gender and the belief that there are three genders: male, female and blended. She continues with a diatribe about how society has treated these people and developed rules governing them. She stated that when she began writing the novel, she wanted to have an intersex character. Four out of the ten page Author's Note is devoted to gender roles. I was turned off by all of this. Reading is an escape for me and I do not like being preached to, especially with historical fiction.
I would have rated the novel 3 out of 5 stars but the preaching requires a rating of 2 out of 5.
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