WENDY HORNSBY – The Paramour’s Daughter. Perseverance Press, trade paperback, 2010.

Genre:   Unlicensed investigator/Journalist. Leading character:   Maggie MacGowen; 7th in series. Setting:   Los Angeles/France.

First Sentence:   “My dear girl!”

    When documentary filmmaker Maggie MacGowen is approached by a woman who claims to be her mother, it is disturbing enough. When that woman is then killed in a deliberate hit-and-run and Maggie learns the woman’s claim is fact, it changes everything. Maggie travels to meet her French family and soon becomes immersed in their lives, problems and threats.

    Wendy Hornsby’s books have always been character driven with an element of suspense, and that is still true. Imagine finding out your past isn’t what you thought. Imagine being introduced to a completely new family about which you’d never known.

    Hornsby does a wonderful job conveying Maggie’s thoughts and feelings at suddenly being put in this situation. The characters become real, as does the occasional awkwardness of Maggie’s situation. But we see Maggie progress and begin to recover from her recent tragedy, including a possible new beginning for her.

    The descriptions are wonderfully visual, both when she is in Paris and in the countryside, and the food, such as real croissant and strawberry jam, is delectable. As always, I love learning something new and here I learned about cheese and about Calvados (French apple brandy); both good things.

    The suspense is there, particularly once we learn the initial accident wasn’t an accident, but there is a wonderful subtlety to it and balance within the story. While I may not feel this is the best of Hornsby’s book, it was still a very good, solid read. She retains her place on my “must buy” list.

Rating:   Very Good.

        The Kate Teague & Lt. Roger Tejada series —

1. No Harm (1987)     (*)
2. Half a Mind (1990)

        The Maggie MacGowen series —

1. Telling Lies (1992)

2. Midnight Baby (1993)
3. Bad Intent (1994)
4. 77th Street Requiem (1995)

5. A Hard Light (1997)
6. In the Guise of Mercy (2009)
7. The Paramour’s Daughter (2010)

(*) According to Al Hubin’s Revised Crime Fiction IV, Maggie MacGowen makes at least a cameo appearance in No Harm.

[UPDATE] 01-23-10.   For a complete bibliography for Wendy Hornsby, add to the list of books above the following collection of short stories. The title story won an Edgar for Best Short Story in 1992. [Thanks to Jeff Meyerson who reminded me of this book in Comment #1. Also note the discussion that follows in #2 and #3.]

Nine Sons and Other Mysteries. Crippen & Landru, 2001.

[UPDATE #2] 01-24-11.   I’ve passed the word along to Al Hubin that Maggie MacGowen does not appear in No Harm. See the comments!

PETER HILL – The Hunters. Scribner’s, US, hardcover, 1976. UK edition: Peter Davies, 1976.

   A rapist killer strikes in Suffolk, and Scotland Yard sends out its crack team of Chief Superintendent Robert Stauton and Detective Inspector Leo Wyndsor. Mark their names as they will return.

   In brief, Stauton is supposedly infallible, uncompromising, and suffers from hemorrhoids, while Wyndsor is a man for the ladies, who literally tear their clothes off for him. Yet as a team they make an efficient pair, gradually learning each other’s personalities and vices, each determined to succeed.

   The initial stages of the investigation are as routine as usual, but the story suddenly comes alive when Wyndsor takes on the local priest in an argument about the Church and the human condition — I say he wins. At the same time overtones of the occult begin to work their way in, and a local coven’s meeting the night of the murder makes mince of coherent alibi taking.

   It is a problem, but one overcome by a nifty piece of police work, in a tale filled with characters one grows to appreciate. A fine debut.

[UPDATE] 01-20-11.   I don’t remember this one at all. I probably wouldn’t have reprinted it if I hadn’t felt the need to remind myself that you can’t be right all the time. There were several more books in the series, but Staughton and Wyndsor obviously didn’t catch on and/or couldn’t maintain the momentum I thought I saw in their first outing. From the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here’s a list of all of Hill’s crime fiction under this name:

PETER HILL. Pseudonym of Peter Eyers-Hill, 1939- .

    The Hunters (n.) Davies 1976 [Chief Insp. Robert Staunton]
    The Fanatics (n.) Davies 1977 [Commander Allan Dice]
    The Liars (n.) Davies 1977 [Chief Insp. Robert Staunton]
    The Enthusiast (n.) Davies 1978 [Chief Insp. Robert Staunton]
    The Washermen (n.) Davies 1979 [Commander Allan Dice]
    The Savages (n.) Heinemann 1980 [Chief Insp. Robert Staunton]

Note: The last two titles had no US publication.

MILTON BASS – The Belfast Connection. New American Library, hardcover, 1988. Signet, paperback, 1989.

    Benny Freedman is not your average American cop, and The Belfast Connection is not your average American cop’s adventure. Milton Bass introduced his lieutenant in the San Diego homicide department three novels back, and by now Benny is worth $49 million through some convenient if unplanned inheriting.

    The money came with mob fingerprints all over it, but Benny sorted that out earlier. The millions don’t interest Freedman greatly, though sometimes they come in handy; he’d just as soon be investigating murder. But here a minor injury has sidelined him for the statutory twelve-week sick leave, so he decides to explore his roots.

    His Irish roots. On his mother’s side, obviously. When his Jewish father (now dead) married his mother (now also dead), her intensely Catholic family denounced her. Thirty years later, Benny figures he’d like to find out what sort of people would do that, and maybe punch a few of them in the nose.

    He comes to Belfast to find cousin Sean is freshly dead, of what is confidently assumed to be a Protestant bullet. So this Irish-Jew cop of ours is plunged into the sectarian wars of that ravaged city, a place where human answers are as unknown as dying is familiar. A fascinating tale.

Bio-Bibliographic Notes:

       The Benny Freedman series —

   Dirty Money. Signet, pbo, 1986.
   The Moving Finger. Signet, pbo, 1986.
   The Bandini Affair. Signet, pbo, 1987.
   The Belfast Connection. NAL, hc, 1988.

  Bass also wrote two mystery novels in his Vinnie Altobelli series: The Half-Hearted Detective (1993) and The Broken-Hearted Detective (1994), plus one stand-alone thriller in hardcover: Force Red (1970).

  From one online website: “Milton Ralph Bass was born [1923] and raised in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1947 and a Master’s in English from Smith College in 1948. During World War II, he served in the army as a medic. In 1986, he retired from The Berkshire Eagle after 35 years as entertainment editor, theater and movie critic.”

 
Milton Bass was the author of at least four western novels, all in his “Jory” series: Jory (1969), Mistr Jory (1976), Gunfighter Jory (1987), and Sherff Jory (1987). I’ve never seen any of them, but Bill Crider reviewed the first one a couple of years ago on his blog.

[UPDATE] 01-20-11.   As I’ve just discovered, Mr. Bass is not yet fully retired. He’s still doing a weekly online column for The Berkshire Eagle. Here’s a link to a piece he did last Sunday on the occasion of his 88th birthday.

CHRISTOPHER FOWLER – Bryant & May Off the Rails. Bantam, hardcover, November 2009; trade paperback, September 2010. First UK edition: Transworld/Doubleday, hardcover 2010.

   The Peculiar Crimes Unit are still moving into the empty warehouse that will be their headquarters when they capture the serial killer known as the King’s Cross Executioner. Unfortunately for the Unit, Mr. Fox, as he is known to them, manages to kill one of the team and escape from their headquarters.

   So once again, unless they can recapture Mr. Fox by the end of the week, the Unit, headed by the elderly detective team of Arthur Bryant and John May is in danger of being disbanded.

   All they know about Mr. Fox is that his murders have been committed in the area of the King’s Cross Underground Station. Bryant is convinced that he will not leave the area because he is somehow psychologically tied to the locality around King’s Cross.

   Then they are called in by the Unit’s former medical examiner when a young, single mother is killed by a fall down a flight of stairs in the subway. The reader knows it was murder, but was it committed by Mr. Fox? On the back of the woman’s coat was a sticker which the Unit eventually traces to a group of University students sharing a house. Then one of those students goes missing.

   This seemed to me somewhat less satisfying than the previous cases of the Peculiar Crimes Unit. It strikes me that the author was consciously trying to make John May less eccentric than in previous books, although Bryant is still the same. It does have a pretty good final 50 pages or so and plenty of information about the London Underground system for those interested.

       The Bryant and May series —

1. Full Dark House (2003)

2. The Water Room (2004)
3. Seventy-Seven Clocks (2005)
4. Ten Second Staircase (2006)

5. White Corridor (2007)
6. The Victoria Vanishes (2008)
7. Bryant & May on the Loose (2009)

8. Bryant & May Off the Rails (2010)

HARLEY JANE KOZAK – A Date You Can’t Refuse. Broadway, trade paperback original, March 2009.

   At one time a greeting card designer, Wollie Shelley currently makes her living as a professional dater. But along with this switch in career paths, she has somehow managed to find herself mixed up in several cases of murder as well.

   In this, the fourth and final book in the series, Wollie finds herself working for a media training firm, teaching American social conventions to Eastern Europeans — in essence, dating them. It turns out her reality shows were huge hits in Belarus and vicinity, so she’s a bit of a celebrity to the clientele.

   She also happens to be informing to the FBI, because they think something is up with the vaguely cultish company — maybe arms dealing. However, the FBI isn’t very forthcoming, and her FBI agent boyfriend is involved in his own undercover investigation.

   Anyway, it turns out more than one thing is up. As usual in this series, there are a lot of ingredients in the soup, including murder, DVD piracy, bad mobile phone reception and a sidewalk chalk art competition. Wollie realizes her predecessor at the media training firm was murdered. When that young woman’s boyfriend is also killed, Wollie gets serious about investigating and lands in real danger.

   Anyone who hasn’t read the previous books might find the subplots related to Wollie’s brother, uncle and friends a bit unclear, but that won’t spoil the book. And I won’t spoil the ending to the series, one of my favorites, except to say that it seems like a happy one.

The Wollie Shelley mystery series —

       1. Dating Dead Men (2004)

       2. Dating Is Murder (2005)
       3. Dead Ex (2007)
       4. A Date You Can’t Refuse (2009)

JAMES CRUMLEY – The Mexican Tree Duck. C. W. Sughrue #2. Mysterious Press, hardcover, September 1993; reprint paperback, October 1994.

   What can you say about James Crumley that hasn’t been said before? No writer in the field has garnered so much critical attention for just three books, and a respectable number of respectable critics have lauded him as the best of the private eye writers.

   While considering him to be a powerful writer, I never shared that opinion, and in fact found it ludicrous. Nevertheless, I looked forward to reading this. I thought the first C. W. Sughrue book, The Last Good Kiss, was the best of his first three.

   C. W. hasn’t changed a whole lot, other than being middle-aged, now. He’s still rough as pine bark, and he’ll still have a drink or do a line with you, or whip your ass if it needs it. He’s hired by twins who own a fish store, overweight weapons freaks, to get their fish back from an outlaw biker that’s stiffed them on a check.

   In the process of doing that, he gets hired by the biker to find his mother. At least he thinks she’s his mother. Sound humorous? Not really. She’s a Mexican national married to a Texas oilman, and she’s been kidnapped.

   Before it’s over it’s turned to politics, drugs, and money, and Sughrue has hooked up with some Viet Nam buddies, taken on two or three governments, waged his own private war, fallen in love, and been in on the spilling of more blood than you could wipe up with a bale of tissues.

   Crumley’s prose is powerful, though I think not so much as in his earlier books. The characters are mostly of a type: the women crude, loving. tough, and ready, and the men cut from the same cloth as Sughrue himself — tough, violent, and abusers of any substance that’s inert enough to be abused.

   The improbable plot was just a framework, not terribly important to Crumley in comparison to what he had to say. Plotting never was his thing.

   This isn’t a detective novel. It’s a war story, or perhaps a paean to the brotherhood of warriors. It seems to me a book written by a man frozen in time, one not able to leave behind the world of war, drugs, and whiskey.

   There’s little here that speaks to me. To someone tortured by Crumley’s own demons it may be a fine novel, but to me it was just a sad waste of talent, not redeemed by the prose.

   The only message I got was that whiskey, drugs, and fighting are good, government and business are bad, and a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. In the end, I tired of the macho posturing and the gunfire, and there wasn’t much else to it.

      The “Milo” Milodragovitch series —

The Wrong Case (1975)

Dancing Bear (1983)
Bordersnakes (1996) [with C. W. Sughrue]
The Final Country (2001)

      The C. W. Sughrue series —

The Last Good Kiss (1978)
The Mexican Tree Duck (1993)
Bordersnakes (1996) [with Milo Milodragovitch]

The Right Madness (2005)

MARJORIE ALAN – Dark Prophecy. M.S. Mill, hardcover, 1945. Hardcover reprint: Detective Book Club, 3-in-1 edition, December 1945. Originally published in the UK as Masked Murder (Hale, hc, 1945).

   Chapter 1:   “Of course, Valerie thought, as she laid it [the letter] down, she wouldn’t go.”

   Chapter 2:   “Directly she got into the train at Paddington she knew that she ought not to go to Wayfarers. Knew in a clear, definite premonitory flash, as unmistakably as though someone had spoken the words…”

   Had I but known, I wouldn’t have begun the book. But unlike our heroine, I at least was wise enough not to undertake this perilous journey.

       Bibliography:     [Adapted from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.]

MARJORIE ALAN.   Pseudonym of Doris Marjorie Bumpus, 1905- .

    Masked Murder. Hale 1945. US edition: Dark Prophecy, Mill 1945.
    Murder in November. Hale 1946. US edition: Rue the Day, Mill 1946.
    Murder Next Door. Hale 1950.
    The Ivory Locket. Hale 1951.

    Murder at Puck’s Cottage. Hale 1951.
    Dark Legacy. Hale 1953.
    Murder Looks Back. Hale 1955.
    Murder in a Maze. Hale 1956.

Editorial Comments:   This is essentially all I have learned about the author. One online source adds a birthplace (in England), but no one seems to have even a year of death for her.

    Confession time. I have not been posting all of Bill Deeck’s fanzine reviews I come across, generally choosing not to use any that are as short and dismissive as this one is. I’ve made an exception this time. Even though it’s short and dismissive, it’s also one (in my opinion) that gives a honest description and evaluation of the book.

    If you can’t get an idea of what the novel’s about in these 150 words or so, and whether you’d like it or not, I don’t think another thousand would help. You be the judge!

   Here’s my contribution to the lists that are popping up now that 2010 is over. I read nearly 100 books last year but not even half of them were vintage detective novels. I’ll have to rectify that this year.

   The list is in chronological order and not ranked because I can’t ever put my likes in numerical order or even apply letter grades. I did, however, add some highly opinionated comments after most of the titles to give you an idea of how much I liked or disliked a book.

   Titles in BOLD were excellent and entertaining on all levels. All of those titles are well worth seeking out. Good luck with finding them though, as nearly all are out of print and scarce in the used book trade. The stinker books (and there were quite a few) are at the bottom of the list after the row of asterisks.

   â— The Red Lady – Anthony Wynne. (Impossible crime with a clever gimmick that fooled me. How could I not see that one coming?)

   â— The Chinese Orange Mystery – Ellery Queen. (A re-read for me.)

   â— The Curse of the Bronze Lamp – Carter Dickson.

   â— The House Without a Key – Earl Derr Biggers. (First ever time I read a Charlie Chan book. Rather surprisingly good.)

   â— The Emperor’s Snuff Box – John Dickson Carr. (Brilliant! Why has it never been filmed? Would work beautifully on screen. Very Rear Window like, plus many cinematic sequences.)     [FOOTNOTE.]

   â— The Horseman of Death – Anthony Wynne. (One of his dull ones. Went on and on and on. Ugh.)

   â— About the Murder of a Man Afraid of Women – Anthony Abbot. (One of the better Thatcher Colt books, heavy on action in the last third. You learn a lot about ballistics in his one. Truly a surprising ending. I gasped, believe it or not.)

   â— The Ghost Hunters – Gordon Meyrick. (Short stories about an occult detective, all supernatural elements with the exception of one story are rationalized. Mediocre. One story was like a “Scooby Doo” cartoon in print.).

   â— The Greek Coffin Mystery – Ellery Queen. (Another re-read. Ellery’s lectures and overall pedanticism are annoying to me now. I think I loved them when I read them as a teenager.)

   â— The Witness at the Window – Charles Barry. (Silly, but entertaining in a Gun in Cheek kind of way. Has a secondary, French-speaking detective who appears in the last half of the book who is obviously a Poirot parody.)

   â— Poison Unknown – Charles Dutton. (More of an action thriller. From Dutton’s later period when he abandoned his scientific detective John Bartley in favor of the youthful Harley Manners who tended to resort to traps and gimmicks when unmasking the killer.)

   â— The Cleverness of Mr. Budd – Gerald Verner.

   â— All Fall Down – L.A. G. Strong. (Trenchant wit, good plot, forgotten writer whether as a mainstream novelist, short story writer or detective story writer. Well worth tracking down all of his detective novels. Also his supernatural short stories.)

   â— Murder of a Chemist – Miles Burton. (Extremely rare book. I read it then sold it online for an outrageous sum. Email me for details if you’re curious about the sale. The book is not really worth reading though.)

   â— Tragedy on the Line – John Rhode. (The early Rhode’s are surprisingly good, IMO. Rhode gets a bad rap as one of the dreary writers, but he often is entertaining. Sometimes ingenious.)

   â— The Claverton Mystery – John Rhode. (Surely one of his best, near brilliant.).

   â— Into the Void – Florence Converse. (Odd little book about bootlegging in a New England village, has a quasi impossible crime plot, more interesting as a study in the American village as microcosm than as a detective story.)

   â— Death on Tiptoe – R.C. Ashby. (I loved this! But I have a penchant for Gothic elements in the detective novel. My review for this book can be found here.)

   â— Out of the Darkness – Charles Dutton. (Author’s first book, underrated writer. He wrote a handful of books that deal with the psychopathology of multiple murderers long before anyone was writing about demented serial killers. This one deals remarkably well with the after effects of shell shock.)

   â— The Crooked Cross – Charles Dutton. (Once again emphasis on the psychopathology of murder. Fundamentalist Christian beliefs lead to mania.)

   â— The Lava Flow Murders – Max Long. (See my review here for more on this book.)

   â— Cue for Murder – Helen McCloy. (Near brilliant. Title serves as a huge clue. Basil Willing and McCloy never really get their due when discussing the cream of the crop of the Golden Age. She is definitely overlooked, IMO. Also book is spot on with the theater background — one of the best theater mysteries of any era. Really understands the actor mentality.)

   â— Streaked with Crimson – Charles Dutton. (Yet another crazed serial killer with an interesting motive.)

   â— Murder, M.D. – Miles Burton. (Overrated; most of book is dull, surprise ending is not really much a surprise for a savvy contemporary reader.)

   â— He Arrived at Dusk – R.C. Ashby. (Her best detective novel. Gripping with a Du Maurier like mastery of misdirection in the narration. Read my full review here.)

   â— The Joss – Richard Marsh. (More a supernatural thriller but with a smidgen of a detective plot that recurs throughout.)

   â— The Shade of Time – David Duncan. (Impossible crime novel, not one of my favorites due to an insulting misunderstanding of what a transvestite is in the latter portion of the book.)

   â— Murder Takes the Veil – Margaret Ann Hubbard. (Great setting: a convent school in the Louisiana bayou; story was like a bad Phyllis Whitney plot though.)

   â— The Notting Hill Mystery – Anonymous or Charles Felix. (Innovative, clever and thoroughly original – especially since it was published in 1863! My critical essay appears here earlier on this blog.)

   â— Death at Swaythling Court – J. J. Connington. (His first detective novel. Much of it seems like a parody of the genre in the first half. Entertaining, lively with an intricate and satisfying plot.)

   â— Such Friends Are Dangerous – Walter Tyrer . (Whopper of an ending. Took me completely by surprise. A little masterpiece. Succeeds as both a scathing satire of British village life circa 1955 and as a devilish detective novel. By a writer who mainly wrote adventure thrillers for the Amalgamated Press syndicate.)

   â— Candidate for Lilies – Roger East. (Underrated writer, excellent plotter, literate style. This one has a truly poignant ending for a detective novel. Borders on true tragedy in the classic Greek sense.)

   â— The Case of the Constant Suicides – John Dickson Carr. (This makes many “Best of Carr” lists. I found it to be more farce than detective novel, even with its gimmicky plot. The character of the staunch Catholic Scottish woman had me laughing out loud on the subway train several evenings.)

   â— Rough Cider – Peter Lovesey. (Brilliant! Surely one of Lovesey’s best if not his best of all time.)

   â— Murder Rehearsal – Roger East. (Mystery novelist’s plot idea seems to be the model for a real killer’s handiwork. Gets a bit convoluted in the middle, but worth seeking out. He can write!)

   â— The Lord of Misrule – Paul Halter. (Disappointing. I figured out how the killer left no footprints because the main clue was obviously planted and is also a blatant anachronism for the Victorian era in which the book is supposedly set. Also bothered by servants who were treated as members of the family — talk about lack of verisimilitude! They were allowed to take part in the seance? Never! I wanted to be surprised and delighted, but was not. I guess he’s hit and miss. For me this was a big miss.)

       Books You Would Be Wise to Avoid:

   â— The Watcher – Gerald Verner. (Pedestrian plot, lackluster writing, stock characters.)

   â— The River House Mystery – Gerald Verner. (I have no problem revealing to you that the butler did it in this one. Seriously! Utterly dreadful.)

   â— The Screaming Portrait – Ferrin Fraser. (Absurd and contrived from beginning to end. On the first page we are told that the narrator had been tiger hunting — in South Africa! I should’ve thrown the book in the trash then and there.)

   â— The Case of the Scared Rabbits – George Bellairs. (Very scarce book, but one of his worst plots. Not worth seeking out)

   â— Red Rhapsody – Cortland Fitzsimmons. (My first and probably last Fitzsimmons book. Ludicrous plot, high body count and laughable solution. Also, another insulting treatment of a gay man from the 1930s. Blecch.)

FOOTNOTE / Editorial Comment:   After John’s list appeared first on Yahoo’s Golden Age of Detection list, Bob Houk pointed out that:

    “The Emperor’s Snuff Box was made into a movie in 1957, called The Woman Opposite or City after Midnight. Here’s the IMDB entry:

    “http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051071/.”

   Apparently a British production, the film’s two stars were Phyllis Kirk and Dan O’Herlihy, and it was released in the US by RKO Radio Pictures. It has come out commercially on VHS but (so far) not on DVD. It should be findable, but (after a quick search), I haven’t yet.

VALENTINE WILLIAMS – The Curiosity of Mr. Treadgold. Houghton Mifflin, US, hardcover, 1937; Grosset & Dunlap, US, hc reprint, no date stated. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hc, 1937, as Mr. Treadgold Cuts In.

   Following up on his success in Quebec in investigating what were known as “the Saint Fiorentin murders,” chronicled in Williams’s Dead Man Manor, H. B. Treadgold, head of Bowl, Treadgold, and Flack, bespoke tailors of Savile Row, London, and East Fiftieth Street, New York, continues dabbling in crime investigation by solving ten cases of theft, blackmail, or murder.

   The cases here are not fair play, by any means, but that does not make them any the less enjoyable. Treadgold is a capable detective and an interesting character.

  Editorial Comment:   Bill’s review is too short, alas, to learn very much about the stories themselves, but it’s certainly long enough to be intriguing. There’s no question that Valentine Williams falls into the category of a Forgotten Writer, but if you’d like to know more, there’s a long essay about him on Mike Grost’s Classic Mystery and Detection website. Recommended!

The Mr. Horace B. Threadgold books —

      Dead Man Manor. Hodder 1936.    [novel]

      Mr. Treadgold Cuts In. Hodder 1937; published in the US as The Curiosity of Mr. Treadgold.    [story collection]
      Skeleton Out of the Cupboard. Hodder 1946.   [novel; no US edition]

ARIANA FRANKLIN – A Murderous Procession. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, hardcover, April 2010. Published in the UK as The Assassin’s Prayer: Bantam Press, hardcover, July 2010.

Genre:   Historical mystery. Leading character:  Adelia Aguilar; 4th in series. Setting:   France/Italy; Middle Ages/1179.

First Sentence:   Between the parishes of Shepfold and Martlake in Somerset existed an area of no-man’s-land and a lot of ill feeling.

    Dr. Adelia Aguilar is thrilled to learn Henry II wants to send her to accompany his daughter Joanna’s wedding procession to her home of Sicily. Her feelings change to anger when she learns Henry is keeping Adelia’s daughter in England to ensure Adelia’s return.

   With them, and well concealed, will be Arthur’s sword, Excalibur, as a gift to the bridegroom. Danger a rises from an old foe out to steal the sword and looking for revenge against Adelia.

   There was a different feel to this book than those previous. Whereas before, Adelia seemed very much in control and strong, here she was in situations completely beyond her control and, at times, in great peril.

   While some readers might not care for the change this wrought in the character, I liked that it showed her vulnerability and weaknesses, as well as the human failing that when the truth is too frightening to accept, it is denied.

   There is a progression in the lives of the characters with each book, which is important to me. Some readers have criticized the coup de foudre felt by the Irish sea captain O’Donnell for Adelia. Having personally experienced it — although it didn’t last — I didn’t find it unrealistic. I did enjoy that we meet Adelia’s parents in this book.

   As always with Franklin’s books, I learn so much history. Henry’s daughter, Joan, was known to me, but not in any detail nor her role in history. Of late, I’ve read more books that deal with the Cathers, and I find them fascinating. I certainly knew nothing of the history of Sicily and found it significant that she shows it to us at a turning point in its history.

   Perhaps I’m obtuse, but I did not figure out the identity taken by the villain until it was revealed. What I did not like was the ending. It seems more authors are doing cliff-hanger endings and it’s a trend I dearly hope will end almost immediately. Write a good book, I promise to read the next one without being tricked into so doing.

   I very much enjoyed the story and only the ending prevented my rating it as “excellent.” For readers new to the series, I recommend starting at the beginning. For me, I am ready for the next book.

Rating:   Very Good Plus.

      The “Mistress of the Art of Death” series:    [Adelia Aguilar is the world’s first female anatomist/medical examiner.]

1. The Mistress of the Art of Death (2007)
2. The Serpent’s Tale (2008) aka The Death Maze

3. Relics of the Dead (2009) aka Grave Goods

4. A Murderous Procession (2010) aka The Assassin’s Prayer