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.

Book of the Month: October

My favorite book this month is I Was Their American Dream.  It made a huge impact on me and may even end up being my 2019 book of the year.

This book challenged my notions of what the American experience is and should be. I felt a little judgmental toward the author for how she made decisions for her life. I felt that I celebrated her heritage more than she did. I know that these feelings are wrong but that is why this book is so special. The author makes the reader think about what the American Dream is for each person. No person can define that for another and each person's definition seemed to me to be related to how long their family had been in the U.S.  When I consider how my friends view this definition, it is the same as mine.  Please read my review of the book here. I loved it and feel it is an important story to discuss.

There were several other books that were good enough to be book of the month for any month other than October. I read some great books such as Irmina, They called Us Enemy, A Fire Story and The Kinship of Secrets. What is amazing is that all of these books except one is a graphic novel. As the month passed I kept thinking that surely this book will be it, then that book. After reading I Was Their American Dream, I knew no other book would surpass it. 

The Time for Murder is Meow

This cozy mystery is the first installment of a new series featuring former actress and pet shop heiress Crishell McMillan. "Shell" inherited her shop, the Purr N Bark Pet Shop, from her grandmother.

The back cover blurb summarizes the plot as follows: "Crishell 'Shell' McMillan sees the cancellation of her TV series as a blessing in disguise. The former actress can now take over her late aunt's pet shop, the Purr N Bark, and do something she truly loves. While getting the shop ready for reopening, Shell is asked to loan her aunt's Cary Grant posters to the local museum for an exhibit. She finds the prospect exciting-until a Museum board member, who had a long-standing feud with Shell's aunt, votes against it. When she discovers the board member dead in the museum, Shell becomes suspect number one. Can she, her Siamese cat Kahlua, and her new sidekick-her aunt's Persian named Purrday-find the real culprit? If not, her latest career will go up in kitty litter."

The murder to be solved did not occur until page 100 of this 296 page book. For me, that is way too late for a whodunnit to be successful. Also, when a series is about a shop, the shop should be featured in the story. The Purr N Bark Pet Shop was rarely mentioned as it had not opened for business yet. The reader doesn't know what type of series this is going to be when the supposed setting for it has not been introduced. We don't  know the decor, the characters who work there, and how the business is woven into the sleuthing. I think this is a fatal flaw for the series but we shall wait and see what book number two turns out to be when it is published in 2020.  As for the two cats mentioned in the back cover blurb, they were only involved to greet the protagonist when she came home in the evening. I don't know why they were even mentioned in the blurb.

The main problem that I had with this book was that the conflict between the main character and her adversaries was based on an unrealistic premise.  I can forget the other problems with the book and see this as a stand alone novel. What I cannot do is get interested in a plot that is based on a person being upset that a charity will not allow her to exhibit her vintage movie posters on their premises. Any one who takes offense over something like that has psychologist issues. Unless the author wants to take us on a murderous rage, this plot falls flat.

2 out of 5 stars.