The Knight’s Tale

Poet Geoffrey Chaucer, the hero of this excellent series launch from Trow (the Kit Marlowe mysteries), earns a living as the comptroller of His Grace’s Woollens in London. One morning, Hugh Glanville, the son of an old friend, arrives from Suffolk to tell Chaucer he’s needed to investigate the suspicious death of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, who was once Chaucer’s employer and protector. Three days earlier, Hugh’s father discovered the duke lying dead on his bed, the bed clothes in disarray but no other signs of violence. At Clarence’s castle in Suffolk, Chaucer examines the body and determines that he was poisoned. Clarence, who was married to a gorgeous Italian noblewoman and kept a local girl as a mistress, was sexually active, and murder suspects abound. Trow brings medieval England fully to life through well-chosen period detail, but the novel’s main strength is its portrait of Chaucer, a rather rueful figure, nostalgic for his youth, who, being overweight, worries about falling off his horse. His intelligence, kindness, and insights into human nature serve him well in his efforts to catch a killer. Readers will hope to see a lot more of him in his role as sleuth. (Aug.)