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.