Medieval physician Kathryn Swinbrooke races against time to solve the murder of Tenebrae, an evil magus and blackmailer, to save her beloved Colum Murtagh, a soldier for the crown, and uncovers a host of suspects, including an anxious group of London goldsmiths.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
It is summer 1471, and devout pilgrims are heading for Canterbury to pray before the bones of St. Thomas a Becket. In this brisk, sharply-etched and often startling mystery (the fourth in the series featuring Kathryn Swinbrooke, physician), the pious travelers are accompanied by tradesmen, beggars, mountebanks and, again, a murderer. Tenebrae, the thoroughly evil warlock, has been killed. No one, from his unsavory servants to the Queen, regrets his death. But his volume of The Book of Shadows, which dates from Roman times and holds secrets of magic-and damaging information invaluable to blackmailers-has been stolen. Kathryn (last seen in The Merchant of Death), a leech and apothecary who cares for the ill only with a mixture of compassion, common sense and her own potions, is also licensed by the city to investigate questionable deaths. Bolstered by influential friends Colum Murtagh (the King's Commissioner) and Simon Luberon (clerk to the Archbishop of Canterbury), she zeroes in on an apparently respectable guild of goldsmiths who had had appointments with Tenebrae on the morning of his death. The ensuing investigation is swift and penetrating. Played out against the vibrant and gritty life of 15th-century Canterbury, it yields a tale that is as focused as it is shocking.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Grace (a.k.a. P.C. Doherty) returns once more to 15th-century Canterbury, where someone has murdered the evil blackmailer Tenebrae. Solving the crime falls to physician Kathryn Swinbrooke, who looks even to the king's court for suspects. Solid work from a skilled hand.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting historical mystery,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Book of Shadows (Hardcover)
This series has an unusual protagonist and so introduces the reader to an almost unknown part of history - that of women doctors in the Middle Ages. This is sometimes more interesting than the plot. I wish Katherine and Colum would get together soon though!
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Medieval Ages Get Doctored Up!,
By
This review is from: The Book of Shadows (Hardcover)
Kathyrn Swinbrooke, physician, herbalist, and leech, makes this period piece seem like a series of anachronisms, but it's well worth the time to delve into this exciting Medieval mystery by one of my favorite authors P.C. Dougherty writing as C.L. Grace. The author is able, due to his expertise in this period of English history (he holds a doctorate from Oxford), to make his tales sound genuine and forthcoming. It's interesting, too, to see him portray Edward IV and Queen so vividly and, with a keen sense of awareness, gives us an insight into the Future King, Richard Duke of Gloucester. Little does Edward realize his short lived tenure! A good read!
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Book of Shadows,
By Dorothy H. Wagner (USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Book of Shadows (Hardcover)
C L.Grace, Paul Doherty, does it again. Paul's depiction of Medieval Society is unsurpassed and his characters very believable. I don't think there is an author since Chaucer that has given us such a living, breathing (stinking) example of life in this era; good story, good characterization and a mystery as well. THE BOOK OF SHADOWS is just another of his excellent body of work.
Dorothy Wagner
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