Margaret Frazer has a long and successful series of medieval mysteries featuring nun sleuth Dame Frevisse and it all started with The Novice's Tale.
Set in 1431, the ninth year of Henry VI disastrous reign, Frazer's novel portrays a vivid picture of the simple lives of nuns during that era.
The novice of the title is Thomasine, the young frail girl who is two weeks shy of her final vows when her great-aunt Lady Ermentrude bursts into St.
Frideswide unannounced.
The lady is no lady.
Loud, boozing and bossy, Ermentrude is impressed however when she meets Dame Frevisse's uncle, Thomas Chaucer, untitled but very well connected.
Even she won't dare snub him.
Soon after Ermentrude departs on a sudden unplanned trip to Thomasine's sister's estate, and then returns, just as surprising, to St.
Frideswide, the next day.
Shortly after she returns, a woman who was formerly in Ermentrude's employ dies under mysterious circumstances.
Then the lady, the stuck-up crab herself meets her demise.
Dame Claire the infirmian declares that the cause of death in both cases was poison.
The crowner quickly decides that Thomasine is the vicious killer and Frevisse's problems are confounded by Ermentrude's son, who is a chip off the old block.
She is forced to take the novice into sanctuary to keep her from being nabbed by the crowner and his men at the angry command of the son.
The prioress of St.
Frideswide, Domina Edith, aged but shrewd and intelligent, charges Frevisse to clear Thomasine's name and find the real culprit.
Frazer's eye for detail and her ability to portray the political nuances of life at court and elsewhere give the reader a sense of realism for life without the modern conveniences and nuisances.
It was simple but not necessarily miserable.
Earlier, I criticized Ms.
Frazer's work A Play of Dux Moraud for its lack of suspense and action but The Novice's Tale has no shortage of intrigue and mystery.
I'm glad to start reading Dame Frevisse's adventures from the beginning, since Ms.
Frazer is a wonderful and talented writer and Dame Frevisse is an exciting sleuth on a par with Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael.
Set in 1431, the ninth year of Henry VI disastrous reign, Frazer's novel portrays a vivid picture of the simple lives of nuns during that era.
The novice of the title is Thomasine, the young frail girl who is two weeks shy of her final vows when her great-aunt Lady Ermentrude bursts into St.
Frideswide unannounced.
The lady is no lady.
Loud, boozing and bossy, Ermentrude is impressed however when she meets Dame Frevisse's uncle, Thomas Chaucer, untitled but very well connected.
Even she won't dare snub him.
Soon after Ermentrude departs on a sudden unplanned trip to Thomasine's sister's estate, and then returns, just as surprising, to St.
Frideswide, the next day.
Shortly after she returns, a woman who was formerly in Ermentrude's employ dies under mysterious circumstances.
Then the lady, the stuck-up crab herself meets her demise.
Dame Claire the infirmian declares that the cause of death in both cases was poison.
The crowner quickly decides that Thomasine is the vicious killer and Frevisse's problems are confounded by Ermentrude's son, who is a chip off the old block.
She is forced to take the novice into sanctuary to keep her from being nabbed by the crowner and his men at the angry command of the son.
The prioress of St.
Frideswide, Domina Edith, aged but shrewd and intelligent, charges Frevisse to clear Thomasine's name and find the real culprit.
Frazer's eye for detail and her ability to portray the political nuances of life at court and elsewhere give the reader a sense of realism for life without the modern conveniences and nuisances.
It was simple but not necessarily miserable.
Earlier, I criticized Ms.
Frazer's work A Play of Dux Moraud for its lack of suspense and action but The Novice's Tale has no shortage of intrigue and mystery.
I'm glad to start reading Dame Frevisse's adventures from the beginning, since Ms.
Frazer is a wonderful and talented writer and Dame Frevisse is an exciting sleuth on a par with Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael.
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