Book of the Month: November

My best books for November include the Hildegard of Bingen duology The Greenest Branch and The Column of Burning Spices as well as Nancy Bilyeau's The Blue and Christine De Melo's Imposter. I could not pick just one book this month. I also considered adding 3 other historical mysteries to this selection: Anna Castle's Death by Disputation, The Widow's Guild and Publish and Perish. November was a great month for reading!

Two authors are new to me. P. K. Adam's wrote the Hildegard series and Christine De Melo wrote Imposter. De Melo has a few other books published that I can read but I will have to wait until 2020 to read the next story from Adams. It always feels good when you find a new author.

Let's see what December brings.

Angels' Share

Angels' Share is the 10th installment of this wine country cozy mystery series featuring amateur sleuth  Lucie Montgomery. Lucie has a mobility impairment and owns a vineyard in Loudoun County, Virginia.

The summary from the inside cover blurb says "When Lucie Montgomery attends a Thanksgiving weekend party for friends and neighbors at Hawthorne Castle, an honest-to-goodness castle owned by the Avery family, the last great newspaper dynasty in America and owner of the Washington Tribune, she doesn't expect the festive occasion to end in death.

During the party, Prescott Avery, the ninety-five year old family patriarch, invites Lucie to his fabulous wine cellar, where he offers to pay any price for a cache of two hundred year old Madiera that her great-uncle, a Prohibition bootlegger, discovered hidden in the U. S. Capitol in the 1920s. Lucie knows nothing about the valuable wine, believing her late father, a notorious gambler and spendthrift, probably sold or drank it. By the end of the party, Lucie and her fiance, winemaker Quinn Santori, discover Prescott's body lying in his wine cellar. Is one of the guests a murderer?

As Lucie searches for the lost Madeira, she learns about Prescott's affiliation with the Freemasons. More investigation hints at a mysterious vault supposedly containing documents hidden by the Founding Fathers and a possible tie to William Shakespeare. If Lucie finds the long-lost documents, the explosive revelations could change history. But will she uncover a three-hundred-year-old secret before a determined killer finds her?"

Angels' Share is the best written book in this series. Author Ellen Crosby has become a fantastic writer over the years since she began writing this series. All of the books are good. However, the writing is awkward in some sections of the earlier books. Crosby has finally hit her stride with this new novel.

I was somewhat surprised that most of the pursuit of mystery concerned the secondary plot around lost treasure. The solving of the crime, Prescott Avery's murder, took second place. The lost treasure hunt was exciting though and kept me reading but I wondered why, or rather how, it fit in with the murder. The choice for the title was interesting. The angel's share is the amount of wine that evaporates from a wine barrel between the time it is bottled and the time it is opened.

I learned quite a bit about Madiera wine from the book. As with all of the books in the series, a particular wine is featured and the reader becomes knowledgeable about that wine. I could use a glass of it right now since I just finished my Thanksgiving dinner. With the story beginning on Thanksgiving weekend it has a holiday feel to it. I picked the best book to read this week!

5 out of 5 stars!

Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry

Mary Higgins Clark has completed her 46th novel with this mystery; 56th novel if you count those she has co-written with other authors. Every year she continues to churn out book after book and it amazes me how much she has accomplished in her writing. Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry is another stellar piece of writing. Clark captures the reader's attention on page one and keeps you glued to the pages until the end.

The inside cover blurb summarizes the book as follows: "When investigative journalist Gina Kane receives an email from a 'CRyan' describing her 'terrible experience' while working at REL, a high profile television news network, including the comment, 'and I'm not the only one,' Gina knows that she has to pursue the story. But when Ryan goes silent, Gina is shocked to discover the young woman has died tragically in a Jet Sky accident while on holiday.

Meanwhile, REL counsel Michael Carter finds himself in a tricky spot. Several female employees have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct. Carter approaches the CEO, offering to persuade the victims to accept settlements in exchange for their silence. It's a risky endeavor, but it could well make him rich.

As more allegations emerge and the company's IPO draws near, Carter's attempts to keep the story from making headlines are matched only by Gina Kane's determination to uncover the truth. Was Ryan's death truly an accident? And when another accuser turns up dead, Gina realizes someone-or some people-will go to depraved lengths to keep the story from seeing the light."

I read this book before reading the blurb. I am glad that I didn't because the entire plot, except the denouement, is given in the blurb. It's a little surprising, that's all. Another point that I would like to make is that while Higgins Clark is known as being the Queen of Suspense, there was no suspense here. The book is a well plotted murder mystery but it's not a suspenseful novel. As usual, her protagonist is a female, this time an investigative journalist. I think this was a great job for the sleuth to have and this character, Gina Kane, could be a continuing character in a series. Higgins Clark has never written a series before but this book could be the start of one.

5 out of 5 stars!

Imposter

Imposter is a historical fiction novel set in Naples in 1760. Celeste Carducci is living at the Santa Patrizia convent being mentored by Sister Assunta when she discovers that her uncle Camillo Custozi has betrothed her to Count Ferrante degli Spini. Ferrante has a reputation of having a bad temper and she does not want to marry him. Pursuant to Ferrante's agreement with her uncle, Celeste must undergo a physical examination before the marriage can proceed. The physician examining her determines that she is pregnant. Celeste keeps this a secret, staying in bed for 2 weeks with depression. When her best friend Valentina Gaetani next visits her Celeste and Sister Assunta ask Valentina to take Celeste's place at her wedding so that Celeste can be whisked off to another convent. Valentina is poor. She will not have good marriage prospects so she agrees to this arrangement.  Valentina becomes Celeste and marries Ferrante who is none the wiser since he did not meet Celeste before the wedding.

This was just the beginning to a well plotted love story. The pace was quick so it was a fast read. With its captivating plot, I was able to read this book in one sitting.  Most of the drama involved the relationship between Ferrante and the new Celeste. He avoided her and she was afraid to upset him. However, everything she did seemed to upset him. She would play with his daughter from his first marriage outdoors, walk the grounds of the property and go into rooms that he forbade her to enter such as the library. While he married her to get a male heir, Ferrante never touches Celeste. They had many hits and misses early in their marriage. Then the real conflict between them begins.

I usually don't like romance stories but this one was enjoyable. I couldn't put the book down.  The Valentina character was an awe inspiring woman. While her husband was ignoring her, she began performing science experiments in her studio to find the philosopher's stone. She read many books on chemistry and other sciences as well.  Ferrante on the other hand was damaged goods. Raised by an abusive father, he became unable to communicate with others. As for the real Celeste, she was described as this devout girl in a convent but I thought that she was ugly personality wise. Who asks a friend to marry their betrothed so you don't have to? That put a lot of pressure on Valentina to know Celeste's family history and to act meek and mild as though she grew up in a convent.

Christine De Melo is now one of my favorite authors. Check this book out.

Silent Water

Silent Water is a historical fiction novel set in Krakow, Poland in the 1500s. It is the first novel in author P. K. Adams' Jagiellon Mystery series. Members of the Jagiellion Dynasty included the kings of Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Bohemia. The dynasty ruled from the 1300s through the 1500s.  The story is told from the point of view of Caterina Sanseverino, Queen Bona's Lady of the Queen's Chamber.

Lady Bona Sforza of Bari has traveled from Italy to Krakow in April, 1518 with a contingent of ladies in waiting to assist her. She was married by proxy to King Zygmunt while in Bari and was crowned queen of Poland 2 days after her arrival. The marriage is a good one but the courtiers do not like Bona. She cannot handle the Polish foods, preferring the cooks make Italian meals which are lighter in fare. She brought with her the fashions and social mores of Italy which shocked the Polish court. In addition, Bona brought furniture from Italy to furnish her rooms which the courtiers did not approve of either. All seems to be well until the Christmas ball when an aristocrat is found dead in the castle. 2 weeks later during the feast of Epiphany dinner another aristocrat is found dead in the castle. Queen Bona has become involved in the investigations but needs the assistance of Caterina due to the political backlash her husband is receiving from her involvement.

It was refreshing to read a historical mystery novel that did not take place in England or France. The choice of Poland as a setting was a brilliant one. Readers tend to get bored with the same old thing. I learned much about the political climate and culture in Poland. The royal court had a new (to me) activity called the sanna. The sanna is a huge sleigh ride where all of the sleighs are attached. It is held annually on the day before new year's eve. The whodunnit was easy to figure out but the why surprised me.  I googled Queen Bona to determine whether she was accurately portrayed in the book. She was. King Zygmunt 1 was not that interested in ruling but Queen Bona was. Her proposal for agricultural reforms were true to history. The author deftly worked that into the story. I am looking forward to the next book in this series. With 4 countries in this dynasty there are many approaches that the author can take.

5 out of 5 stars.

A Column of Fire

Ken Follett's latest novel takes place primarily in England between 1558 and 1620. The story stretches to Scotland, Paris, Seville, the Caribbean, Cadiz, Geneva and Antwerp.  It is the third book in the author's Kingsbridge series which began with The Pillars of the Earth and continued with World Without End.  The story is not about building as its prequels were. This one concerns the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in England and on the European continent but mostly in England. The two groups viciously battle for political power to make their religion the state religion. Then there are those who favor religious tolerance.

I started the book in August and put it down three times before finishing it yesterday. Its 900 pages did not deter me but some of the characters and their stories did not interest me as much as others. Ned Willard was the main character and the most sympathetic. His family and the Fitzgerald family were the two main families in the book. Ned fell in love with Margery Fitzgerald as a teen but her parents betrothed her to an aristocratic family. He was not a legitimate match for her. Ned ends up working for Princess Elizabeth, later Queen, as a spymaster and his life story is unique. His brother Barney became a sailor, traveled to Spain and the Caribbean. His story did not interest me as much nor did the characters that supported him. Margery's brother, husband and father-in-law were some of the nasty characters who took advantage of the Willards whenever possible. The Fitzgeralds were Catholic and the Willards were Protestant. The French connection provided a lot of political drama and added suspense to the plot.

The plot moved all over the place. It wasn't just the Willards versus the Fitzgeralds. There were many characters to keep track of. I think some were only present for 50 pages. Perhaps there were too many for one book. Do I really need the life story of every one of them? I guess that's why I got bored from time to time. For that reason I can only rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Publish and Perish

Publish and Perish is the the 4th Francis Bacon Mystery. It takes place in 1589 when Francis Bacon is 28. The story concerns a year long war of words between a Puritan pamphleteer Martin Marprelate and several of England's more famous writers of that era. When 2 writers are murdered Lord Burghley asks Francis Bacon to find out who the killer is, a task made difficult by the fact that no one knows the identity of Martin Marprelate. Bacon enlists the assistance of his clerk Tom Clarady to help him solve the crimes.

I have come to love the regular characters in this series. Bacon is still a young barrister here but his intellect is getting noticed by the Crown. Tom Clarady is a lovable character.  He is a witty, 20 year old, bar hopping lady's man. His buddies Tom Nashe and Christopher Marlowe make a great crime solving threesome or just a fun night out at the tavern. They have a female friend Alice Trumpington who they call Trumpet who adds a delicious flavor to this group of friends. She is known to dress as a man so that she can travel the streets of London freely. These four friends are a riot when they get together. Bacon's mother and aunt, both ardent Christian reformers, play a prominent role in this installment of the series. Both are well educated, wealthy widows who basically do whatever they want.

Publish and Perish, and all the earlier books in the series, is written with suspense. Clarady and his pals run into dilemma after dilemma and its not just about solving the crimes. Trumpet needs to marry but also needs to turn away suitors. Clarady is now a ward of the Crown since his father died and has to file a lawsuit in order to obtain his inheritance. Nashe cannot get work. Bacon thinks his cousin might be the killer but wonders if he is just angry that his cousin has received every advantage in life. Both Bacon and Clarady return to the same group of suspects several times. They are stumped with this case and finally decide they must determine who Martin Marprelate is first before determining who killed the writers.

The Marprelate Controversy actually happened. In the author's Afterward she wrote that the Puritans wanted to replace the religious aristocracy of the church with religious democracy. The Crown looked upon that viewpoint as treason but was still never able to figure out Marprelate's identity. Over time 22 people were suggested to be him, but all of them denied it.

5 out of 5 stars!

The Column of Burning Spices

Book two in the Hildegard of Bingen duology was just as riveting as the first. I read both books in one day! The Column of Burning Spices opens in the year 1143 with Hildegard opening a letter from Abbott Bernard of Clairvaux. He has read a chapter on the trinity in a book that she penned and he approves of it.  At this point in her monastic life Hildegard is trying to find a way for her Order to leave St. Disibod's Monastery so that they can live independently from male rule over their lives.  Prior Helenger continues to interfere with her desire to work as a physician and as a writer and has acted more boldly since he expects to succeed the ailing Abbott Kuno. She has been saving money for years to start her own foundation and needs the approval of powerful men in the church such as Abbott Bernard in order to make that goal a reality.

What Hildegard doesn't know is that Abbott Kuno wrote the Pope to inquire whether it was appropriate for her to write on matters of faith since the Bible states that women should not be teachers. Before sending a group of messengers to St. Disibod to observe Hildegard, Pope Eugenius asks an assistant "Who is this woman who rises out of the wilderness like a column of smoke from burning spices?" He has also heard from his friend Abbott Bernard of Clairvaux that he has encouraged Hildegard to continue to write and does not know whose opinion to accept, Kuno's or Bernard's? What I would call an unstable part of church history begins here as popes, anti-popes, bishops, and archbishops rise and fall frequently enough to stall Hildegard's plans to obtain a charter for her foundation and convent.

I was enthralled with this series. I didn't know much about Hildegard or the time period before reading the duology. Fortunately the author is well versed in the Middle Ages. This duology may well be my favorite series of the year, such as the Empress of the Bright Moon duology was for me in 2017. It's a series that just grabs your attention from the first pages and while it is historical fiction, it is also written with suspense.  I highly recommend it.

The Greenest Branch

The Greenest Branch is the first book in a duology by P. K. Adams on Germany's first female physician Hildegard of Bingen.  The title is taken from one of the many chants that Hildegard composed "o veridissima virga."

The story begins the night before Hildegard's enclosure to the convent at St. Disibod in the year 1115.  While her parents are following the custom of tithing their tenth child to the church, they are awake all night discussing whether it's the right time. Her mother feels that at age 10 she is too young to leave home for the restricted environment of an anchorite convent. Anchorites stay secluded in one building and never leave.  Hildegard's father seems more concerned with saving money by giving his daughter to a smaller monastery.  Hildegard has only been told that monasteries are places of learning and since she wants an education she is excited about her prospects. When her parents leave her there the next day she is shocked by her fate. She is not allowed to take monastic classes nor is she allowed to use the library.

A few months later Hildegard succumbs to one of her spells, probably migraines, which lands her in the infirmary for two months. Abbott Kuno and Brother Wigbert, a physician trained in Salerno, decide that the rigors of being an anchoress are too harsh for her young years and she is allowed to remain in the infirmary and work as Wigbert's assistant. There she thrives. By asking to be taught Latin and to read medical texts she begins to be educated as a physician in her own right.  However, none of that happens without the constant interference from the prior Helenger. He does not approve of her working in the infirmary, reading anything other than the psalter, or even being let outside the convent.

I loved this novel and learned so much about church history as well as Hildegard herself. I did not know that the Holy Roman Empire and the Church were ruled by different emporers, popes and anti-popes simultaneously or that any of them were German.  Many changes in these offices occurred during our heroine's life that it was dizzying. The author's knowledge of the Middle Ages is incredible and she was able to give the reader her knowledge with an expert blend of narration and dialogue.

I was rather surprised that couples tithed children to the church and I think that surprised me more than how much Hildegard was able to accomplish as a woman for the era that she lived in. Obviously she was a money machine for the monastery. Still, she was doing a man's job in a man's world in the twelfth century.

I only wish I had read this book before. Book number two is on my kindle and I am starting it...now!

The Blue

Nancy Bilyeau's The Blue is her 4th historical fiction novel.  It takes place in England in the 18th century.

London painter Genevieve Planche wants to become a fine artist but cannot find a mentor because she is a female. Her grandfather wants her to move to Derby and paint porcelains in the Derby Porcelain Works as a career.  When Genevieve meets Gabriel Courtenay at a party he makes her an offer that she cannot refuse. She agrees to go to Derby as a spy for him to obtain information on the chemist working there who is known to be creating a brand new blue color. In exchange he will pay for Genevieve to travel to Venice to live and study as a serious artist.

What initially attracted me to this book was the gorgeous cover. Sadly, the author did not include the name of the book cover artist in her acknowledgements. I would love to know who came up with the design.

The background information on the importance of porcelain during this time period was exciting. The two manufacturers mentioned in the story, Derby and Sevres in France, were real companies of the era and were so competitive that at times the story read more like a spy novel than a historical fiction novel. These companies took their security services seriously and the French had a spy group called Le Secret du Roi that reported directly to the King. Employees of the companies were closely watched to ensure that they gave no secrets away and were not spies themselves.

The story is also a romantic one. Genevieve falls in love along the way and since I don't want to be a spoiler, I will say no more.

5 out of 5 stars!

The Widow's Guild

The third book in Anna Castle's Francis Bacon Mystery series opens with Lady Alice Trumpington, "Trumpet," hastily arranging her marriage to the ill and elderly Ralph Gumery, Viscount Surdeval.  Friends Tom Clarady and Ben Whitt are invited to the wedding but Tom gets a special invitation to stay for the wedding night. Trumpet has plans to provide Surdeval with sons but through Tom. However, as much as Tom desires her, he will not sleep with Trumpet. In the morning they find Surdeval dead in his bed with a cross carved into his chest.  Surdeval's nephew enters the bedroom, sees Tom and Trumpet together, accuses them of murder and they are sent to the Tower. Barrister Francis Bacon's aunt, Lady Elizabeth Russell, hires him on behalf of the widow's guild that she runs, the Andromache Society, to defend Trumpet. Bacon soon learns that there are two other victims, all lords who were nominal Catholics and had crosses carved into their chests, and that their private chapels were robbed on the night of their deaths. He must determine why and how these lords were killed and whether the robberies are connected to the deaths.

I am enjoying reading this series with its well developed characters and information on the English legal system. With character Francis Bacon taking the lead in this novel, the reader learns how barristers are educated, the law on widows benefits, the selling of wardships, and who can be tortured for being Catholic.  Trumpet is an interesting character. She occasionally dresses as a male in order to publicly meet with friends Tom Clarady and Ben Whitt. In prior books she dressed as a man in order to attend law school with them. As a woman in Elizabethan England she was prohibited from attending school but almost finished her education before she got caught. I admire her spunk. She doesn't want to be married so she chooses an elderly, rich man as a husband with the plan that he will die soon after the marriage leaving her a wealthy widow who can live however she desires.

The Widow's Guild is a fabulous installment in the Francis Bacon series. I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

Death by Disputation

Death by Disputation is the second novel in the Francis Bacon Mystery series by Anna Castle. It is 1587 and Francis Bacon is a fairly new barrister at Gray's Inn when he hires college boy Thomas Claraday to determine who the front man is for the Puritans at Cambridge University. Claraday transfers to Corpus Christi College at Cambridge to finish his bachelor's degree while he conducts his investigation. However, soon after his arrival he finds his tutor Bartholomew Leeds dead, hanging from the roof beam of their sleeping loft. Leeds' apparent suicide is quickly deemed a murder. Claraday then is also tasked with finding Leeds' killer.

As with the first book in the series, Murder by Misrule, the author has followed the mystery formula perfectly. The murder occurred early in the book, in fact on the first page, leaving the remainder of the book for solving the crime. Both the clues and red herrings also began on the first page and continued throughout the story to keep the reader interested. The book is written more like a straight mystery that just happens to occur in medieval times. It is not written in the style of a historical mystery.

Tom Claraday, the main character, gets himself into plenty of scrapes to keep the reader on their toes. He is a likable character who tries to fit in with his classmates all while he conducts an affair with his headmaster's wife, Margaret Eggerley. His initial suspect is Christopher Marlowe, a classmate who was asleep in a drunken stupor in the loft when Tom found the body. Tom cannot figure out whether Marlowe is with or against the Puritans and his suspected homosexuality connects him to Leeds, another suspected homosexual. Francis Bacon is not featured much in this installment of the series. It is really all about Tom, although Tom is required to write Bacon daily with his progress notes on the investigation. This is a little odd given that the series is called a Francis Bacon Mystery.

The historical aspect of the story was written well. The writing was done in contemporary English so the reader can get through the book quickly. The characters and descriptions were definitely Elizabethan and a few Elizabethan words were added to contribute to the mood.

Death by Disputation is an engrossing historical mystery and I highly recommend it.

Bad to the Bone

Bad to the Bone is the third book in a cozy mystery series called the Barkery and Biscuits Mysteries. It is the first one in the series that I have read.

The back cover blurb summarizes the book as follows:  "Veterinary technician Carrie Kennersley, owner of the Barkery and Biscuits Bakery for dogs, is reluctant to sell her recipes to pet food manufacturer VimPets. Jack Loroci, a VimPets representative, assures Carrie that it would be a great opportunity to grow her business. His promising new relationship with Carrie's friend Billi Matlock doesn't hurt his cause. But the budding romance takes a bad turn when Wanda Addler, another VimPets employee, sets her sights on Jack. After threatening to ruin Jack's career if he doesn't give her what she wants, Wanda is found dead. Jack and Billi are put at the top of the suspect list, and Carrie is doggone determined to rescue them from a life behind bars."

My initial impression was that something was lacking in the story but I wasn't sure what it was. The murder occurred early in the story.  The main character/amateur sleuth then had conversations with several people over the space of 100 pages concerning whether she should investigate the murder. I thought that was odd since this is a cozy mystery and the reader knows that the amateur sleuth is going to investigate. It was a waste of 100 pages. Once the investigation began, the amateur sleuth only performed witness interviews in her investigation. Again, I thought that was odd. Usually there is back story written in to the plot as well as research being done by one of the characters and an "aha" moment on the part of the main character. I finally realized that there was only dialogue in this novel. There was no other writing technique used to break up all that dialogue.

In addition, there were no clues pointing to who the killer was interspersed throughout the novel. There were no red herrings used either. The relationships between Carrie and her employees were not written into the story as you would normally see in this type of a cozy so the Barkery and Biscuit Shop connection to the plot was not fully formed. I thought that the final resolution to the murder wasn't plausible. Perhaps it's because of the aforementioned issues but in any event it was not a satisfying resolution of the murder.

The plot summary was interesting but there were too many shortcomings in Bad to the Bone. 2 out of 5 stars.