The Riddle of St. Leonard's

In her fifth absorbing Owen Archer mystery (The King's Bishop, etc.), Robb suggests that cost-cutting in the health-care establishment is not new. The plague is taking its toll in 14th-century York, and all the one-eyed former royal spy wants is to weather it without losing any family members. However, Owen is called to detective duty by the master of St. Leonard's Hospital when its pensioners start dying in rapid succession. Since the hospital is in dire financial straits and the pensioners are a drain on its funds, the obvious conclusion is that someone there is aggressively cutting costs. But Owen, in his methodical, painstaking way, refuses to accept easy answers. It seems that, on his deathbed, one of the old men told his niece that he had been poisoned. Intrigued by the uncle's long-ago dealings as a local smuggler, Owen begins to think that the hospital may only have been the place, not the cause, of the man's murder. After finding a connection among all the victims, he goes back and forth between hospital lay sisters of dubious virtue and the sad ending of the smuggler's tale before he finds the truth. Robb is uncommonly good at period atmosphere, immersing the reader in the everyday horrors of the plague; but she distinguishes herself, too, by putting together an engrossing puzzle. (Sept.)