MURDER FOR CHRIST'S MASS: A Templar Knight Mystery - Maureen Ash

From the back of the book: After eight years of captivity in the Holy Land, Templar Knight Bascot de marins finally escaped. Injured in both body and soul, he is on a sojourn at Lincoln castle, where the coming holidays hold the promise of hope and long life---but not for everyone.....

The town of Lincoln is covered in white on Christmas morning. But the snow also conceals the mortal remains of a clerk who worked in the local mint---stabbed, robbed, and left on the floor of a stone quarry. With the sheriff busy entertaining noble guests, Bascot is asked to investigate.

The only clue he finds is a pristine coin stamped with the visage of King Stephen, who reigned some fifty years earlier. The sheriff suspects that a hoard of hidden treasure may connect the killer to the victim. But Bascot, aided by his young protege Gianni, soon discovers that the motive goes beyond money---and beyond mere murder...

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Bascot de Marins is a character I will be following as long as Maureen Ash wants to write his story. He is spiritual and a defender of justice. Watching his mind work out the mystery of the murdered man and the interweaving of all of the information he discovers.

I love his relationship with his young servant, Gianni. How he nurtures and guides Gianni to follow his strengths so that when de Marins goes back to his Templar duties, Gianni won't be at a loss for a position in life.

Greed is prevalent throughout the book and takes all forms. Some give into it and others resist.

Plenty of red herrings to go through with de Marins as he makes mistakes, but ultimately figures it all out.

Five medieval mystery beans.....

THE TAINTED RELIC: An Historical Mystery - Medieval Murderers, narr Stephen Thorne

From the back of the BOCD: THE TAINTED RELIC is five interlinked mysteries from some of the finest historical writers in the UK. Each brings his or her own characters t the tale, which spans over nine hundred years.

July 1100 and Jerusalem has fallen to the Crusader armies. Amid the ensuing chaos a priceless holy relic is entrusted to English knight Geoffrey Mappestone. But the relic is said to be cursed, bringing death and destruction to whoever possesses it. And down the ages the relic continues to wreak its havoc.

The Medieval Murderers are acclaimed authors Simon Beaufort, Philip Gooden, Susanna Gregory, Michael Jecks, Bernard Knight, and Ian Morson.

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I listened to this at work and that might have been part of my not digging it as much as I could have. It took me a little while to get into the story and then to understand everything that was going on. I got that the relic was supposedly cursed and death followed in its wake. My issue was not following who was dying and it seemed like there were a lot of victims with each story. They died before I had a chance to know them or the people solving the crimes or the people doing the killing or even why the killing was occurring, except part of it was to get the relic back from whoever had it.

The only time I could truly understand the story was when it moved up to William Shakespeare's time. The story made me laugh and care about the characters.

All that said, I will be getting more of this series of books, especially KING ARTHUR'S BONES, the reason I started looking for this team of authors. I have a collection of Arthurian legend, saw this book in a review, put it on the WWBL and then found out there's a series of books by this team who call themselves Medieval Murderers. Very cool premise and still intriguing. I know not all books are for all people and I will likely get this as a handheld book to read and pay closer attention....and read it someplace without distractions..like work can be....silly work....

Three need fewer distractions beans....

THE CHATTER OF THE MAIDENS - Alys Clare

From the back of the book:

The serenity of Hawkenlye Abbey has been disturbed by the arrival of a new nun and her two young sisters. Recently orphaned, Alba has had to leave her convent at Ely to take her grieving sister far away from the scene of their sorrow. However Abbess Helewise cannot reconcile the charity and selflessness of this gesture with what she sees and hears of Alba; Sister Alba is everyone agrees, a mean-spirited and turbulent presence.

The Abbess's anxieties grow when her old friend Josse d'Acquin is brought to Hawkenlye, half-dead from blood poisoning. Then a body is discovered and one of the sisters goes missing. In order to discover what reall lies behind Alba's flight to Hawkenlye, Helewise sets off to visit the Fens. She uncovers not only a clever network of lies, but also something more horrific...

I have been a fan of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series forever it seems and when I saw this on the cozy mystery list my favorite homebased bookseller, Our Lady of the Books Pamala, I wanted to try this new to me series.

Abbess Helewise is wise, kind, takes wonderful care of the nuns and people in her charge. I'm not sure of her history yet, but it seems as though she was married at one point and has a history with Josse d'Acquin, the knight brought to Hawkenlye. The abbey is known for its care of the sick and injured and Josse is in good hands with the nuns.

Then the three orphaned sisters arrive on the doorstep of Hawkenlye and the whole abbey is in an uproar. The younger sisters, Berthe and Meriel, are docile and sweet. The eldest, Alba, is completely the opposite with a disruptive arrogant nature. She goes so far as to attack Helewise and getting put in solitary confinement until Helewise can get to the bottom of the fractured story the sisters tell.

Murder and characters who aren't all who they appear..perfect mystery fodder. Set it in medieval times in an abbey, have some herblore, travels across England, forest dwellers, disturbed minds, and Knights Templar...it's a ye olde humdinger!

It will definitely not be my last foray into the world of Abbess Helewise. There are 12 books in the series, this is number 4, and I am going to do my best to find and read each one.

Five ye olde cozy mystery beans....