3.5 stars. Filled with detail & description, but a bit slow moving and the outcome of the mystery was unsatisfying to me. Willing to try another one in the series though. ( )

A very enjoyable mystery. The author does a great job of creating believable characters. I enjoyed the detail of the history that Ash included in her book. I look forward to reading the remaining installments in this series.

If you're a fan of historical fiction set in medieval England, then I highly recommend this book. ( )

This was a very interesting medieval murder mystery. It’s set about fifty years after the Brother Cadfael series in the time of King John. The series shares much with Peter’s Brother Cadfael series, both feature monks who spent part of their lives fighting the Crusades. Cadfael becomes a monk after his time in the Holy Land, Bascot de Marins the detective in this series served as a Templar Knight in the crusades and was at Acre with king Richard, and has a crisis of faith upon his return to England.

This series is much more secular then the Cadfael series and also at least this volume seemed to have much more historical detail and was more realistic then the highly romantic Cadfael series. That said if you enjoyed the Cadfael books I’m fairly certain you’ll enjoy this novel as well.
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Excellent historical mystery, very well written, held my attention throughout and motivated me to read quite a few more in this series. Will eventually read them all - must be 7 or 8 by now. ( )

3.5 stars. Filled with detail & description, but a bit slow moving and the outcome of the mystery was unsatisfying to me. Willing to try another one in the series though. ( )