Mistress of the Art of Death

By Ariana Franklin
Read: Feb 2009
Rating: AWESOME.

I go down on bended knee to my friend V for recommending this. The cover and its text make this sound like a pretty dark murder mystery that happens to be set in medieval Europe. That was pretty cool, but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it so much. It’s FUNNY. It’s wicked. AND it’s gritty enough to make your stomach turn. They just don’t get better than this.

Adelia has been trained as a doctor in Italy, but not just any doctor. She studied death, the means by which it happens and the evidence left on the corpse–that’s right, it’s medieval forensic time! King Henry II of England summons such a doctor to figure out what is going in Cambridge. Several children have been brutally murdered, and the townsfolk accuse the Jews. Henry II is a very straightforward man who likes his Jews just where they are, because they are a reliable source of income. So Adelia, with a detective and a bodyguard in tow, goes to England.

The murders are truly hideous. And the suspects are many. Adelia is constantly questioning the motives of even those who try to be kind to her. And why should that taxman be trying to help anyway? She can’t like him. She’s not a wife, she’s a DOCTOR!

Adelia is wonderful and Rowley is an ass–a terrifically attractive ass.

Will make your gut wrench, AND make you laugh out loud. HIGHLY recommended.