Customer Reviews

Counterfeit Madam: A Gil Cunningham Mystery set in Medieval Scotland (Gil Cunningham Murder Mysteries)

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The last person Gil Cunningham expects to be calling on him, especially during his noon meal, is Dame Isabella Torrance. The next unexpected thing to happen to him is his sister's godmother threatening to leave his sister--who is soon to be married--with nothing unless he does what she wants. It seems her other goddaughter wants to have the only heir to an estate to which Gil fosters the man's bastard son.
When all come together for the `official offer' to be made, Magdalen Boyd, the Dame's other goddaughter, offers two parcels of land to secure the young boy's future in exchange for his no longer being her husband, John Simpill's, heir. As Gil looks the paperwork over, he discovers one of the parcels has tenants that are less than desirable. Also, questions arise about the Dame's other lands and if she has rights to them.
When Dame Isabella Torrance is murdered, in a very interesting way, Gil and his wife Alys begin investigating the possible motives. Gil is also investigating counterfeit coins that are pouring into his area. When the two investigations collide, they learn there is more to both than meets the eye!
Intriguing characters and a captivating storyline will keep you engrossed in this book to the very end.

Reviewed by Ashley Wintters for Suspense Magazine

As the historian of the St. Andrew's Society in Philadelphia and a regular writer for the Clan Campbell Society JOURNAL I was especially entranced by the recreation in this series of life in late 15th century Glasgow and its surroundings. The cultural and historical details flesh out the always tangled murder mysteries concocted by Pat McIntosh to be solved by Glasgow Archbishop Blacader's "Quaestor" (or criminal investigor), the handsome and well-educated Gil Cunningham--and his equally clever and lovely wife Alys (together with her father the French stonemason Pierre). The series begins some years following the battle of Sauchieburn (1483) where Gil's father and brothers fell in battle along with King James III during an uprising led by supporters of the teenaged James IV. Gil, who was luckily in university at the time, has become head of the newly landless and impoverished Cunningham family with many sisters to marry off (and all without dowries). In COUNTERFEIT MADAM (book 7), Gil gets involved in the murder of an abusive and unlovely old noblewoman which leads in turn to a ring of counterfeiters and a lot of personal danger for Gil and Alys. As a Campbell, I am always delighted to see the interaction of the various Scottish noble families, like the Boyds and Semphills and Livingstons, and of course (as usual) the Campbells who invariably feature negatively in the tales. The 1st and 2nd Campbell earls of Argyll were very powerful in this period, and jealousy of their success bred a lot of enmity. This book conveys the roughness of the times and one gets really rapt up in the narrative. COUNTERFEIT MADAM is definitely enjoyable on its own, but for the full flavor of late medieval Scotland do begin this series with book 1, THE HARPER'S QUINE. There the Campbells really take it on the chin.