cover image SAINTLY MURDERS: A Medieval Mystery Featuring Kathryn Swinbrooke

SAINTLY MURDERS: A Medieval Mystery Featuring Kathryn Swinbrooke

C. L. Grace, . . St. Martin's Minotaur, $22.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-312-26993-7

When rats threaten to infest Canterbury, physician and apothecary Kathryn Swinbrooke and her lover, Colum Murtagh, Master of the King's Horse, team up for a fourth time, in an intriguing tale of espionage and murder from British author Grace (The Merchant of Death, etc.). The aged Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Bourchier, seeks Kathryn's aid in overseeing a plan to rid the city of the rats that have mysteriously appeared just as Canterbury prepares for the multitudes coming to worship at the shrine of the martyred saint, Thomas à Becket. Even more mysterious are the miracles attributed to the corpse of the recently deceased friar, Roger Atworth, confessor to King Edward IV's mother, Cecily of York, who fears the possible revelation of personal secrets. Using her keen investigative skills and knowledge of medieval forensics, Kathryn discovers the rats in Canterbury are not limited to the furry, four-legged variety. The author stretches credulity a bit when Kathryn figures out the significance of a passage from the prophet Zephaniah, left by a murdered messenger. It's too bad she didn't supply a good modern translation of the Middle English chapter heads from The Canterbury Tales, but she brings the period alive with authentic historical details and characters as diverse as Chaucer's pilgrims. Some fans may find the rats on the arresting stained-glass jacket design a little off-putting, but they can take comfort in knowing the story's focus is chiefly on the human rodents. (Aug. 27)