Wicked Winter

It's not just the weather that's bleak in Sedley's well-told tale, her sixth set in the Middle Ages and featuring monk-turned-traveling salesman Roger the Chapman (Death and the Chapman, etc.). Unlike the others in his village, the sharp-witted, independent Roger has no patience for the preacher who has come to town. Simeon the Friar is the worst kind of fanatic: he has an answer for everything and disdains even his fellow Dominicans for being too worldly. Feeling restless again, especially after spending an evening with the preacher at his mother-in-law's insistence, Roger is eager to get back on the open road in spite of the winter chill. But the road isn't open enough, for it seems everywhere he stops people are talking of the holy man. It isn't long before Roger encounters the friar himself on his way to visit Lady Cederwell, a young and devout noblewoman who has urgently summoned him. When she is found dead, having fallen from her private chapel, foul weather and foul play conspire to keep the two men at Cederwell Manor. Roger, with his friendly and open demeanor, keeps his ears open, trying to uncover the mystery of the unhappy woman's death. Could she have been pushed by her much older husband, who is known to be in love with the widow who lives nearby? Simeon finds enough sinfulness and intrigue to fill his sermons for years. The mystery, though it has a tendency to turn gothic, is expertly plotted. But the richest rewards for readers come in the medieval world--its lonely and isolated landscapes, austere lives and demanding religion--that Sedley evokes with authority and empathy. (Aug.)