Face Down Under The Wych Elm [Paperback]

Kathy Lynn Emerson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2002

Her roguish husband now dead, Lady Appleton, travels with a new suitor to Maidstone. While there, she learns that two gentlewomen, Constance Crane and her elderly cousin Lucy, are being jailed for bewitching two men to death-and face execution if convicted. Although Constance happens to be a former mistress of Robert, Susanna puts the past to rest and vows to help.

Using her vast knowledge of herbs-and the talents of her gossiping housekeeper-Lady Appleton soon deduces that the deaths are the work of a mysterious poisoner. But can she root out the killer before Constance and Lucy face the gallows-and before Susanna's own life is threatened?

Emerson once again "makes the early stages of the reign of Elizabeth I come gloriously to life" (The Midwest Book Review) in the fifth installment of this sparkling series.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Kathy Lynn Emerson's series of Elizabethan mysteries featuring Susanna, Lady Appleton, just keeps getting better. In this, her fifth outing, the widowed Lady Appleton is enjoying the attentions of a new suitor when she learns that Constance Crane, her late husband's mistress, and Crane's elderly cousin, a former nun, have been jailed for the heinous crime of "bewitching" two men to death. Showing more nobility than good sense, perhaps, Susannah puts the ill- will of the past behind her and vows to help the two imprisoned gentlewomen, who will be executed if convicted.

It's soon clear to Susanna, herself an herbalist of some renown, that the victims died of poison, not witchcraft. With the help of her housekeeper, she solves the crime and names the villain. No big surprises are in store for the careful reader, but clues and solutions aren't the important thing about these clever, well-researched novels. Emerson has a deft hand with the details of the customs and costumes of the Elizabethan era, and brings history to life with a light touch. Lady Appleton gets more interesting as she gets older, and her autonomy and audacity will win the reader's heart. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

This workmanlike historical of witchcraft, murder and greed, the fifth in the series (after Face Down Beneath the Eleanor Cross), begins slowly but ends with an exciting rush. Shortly after Elizabeth I returns her realm to Protestantism from Mary I's brief period of Catholicism, witches are blamed for strange happenings, especially deaths. One "witch" accused of murder is Constance Crane, who was once the mistress of Sir Robert Appleton, the late husband of our sleuthing heroine, Susanna, Lady Appleton. Constance writes Susanna for help, but the message goes astray. Not until Susanna arrives at Maidstone's Assizes with her lover and suitor, Nick Baldwin, does she learn that Constance is in trouble. Susanna immediately suspects the victim was poisoned, but the only way she can save Constance from hanging is to find the true killer. Aided by Nick and by her servant and companion, the faithful Jennet, Susanna uncovers a plot to gain vast wealth through a forgotten will and the canceled vow of a former nun. While Emerson creates an Elizabethan atmosphere by using archaic words (mazer, morphew, etc.) and describing plants and herbal remedies, her work isn't in the same league as that of such seasoned historical writers as Michael Jecks and Peter Tremayne. It's too easy to substitute drug trafficking for witchcraft, cell phones for messengers and cars for horses to imagine the story as a contemporary thriller. (Dec. 7)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758201672
• ISBN-13: 978-0758201676
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,564,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book -great series, November 11, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Face Down Under the Wych Elm (Hardcover)

With her husband now dead, Susanna Lady Appleton of Leigh Abbey in Kent controls all the lands that her deceased spouse used to manage. Susanna is wealthy and has more freedom than most women even under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Susanna refuses to marry because she is sick of being under the control of a male as she has all her life.

Instead, Susannah agrees to become the mistress of her neighbor Nick Baldwin. She accompanies him when he travels to Meidstrom where he has a case pending before the summer Assizes. When they arrive in town, Susanna is shocked to learn that her husband's former mistress Constance Crane and her relative are being held on charges of witchcraft. Knowing the woman is not a witch and feeling some sort of weird obligation, Susanna sets out to prove the innocence of the two women. In doing so, individuals who want the two women burned at the stake begin to look closely at Susanna's behavior.

The fifth installment of the Face Down series provides a very lucid picture of upper class life in Elizabethan England. Kathy Lynn Emerson does a splendid job of showing the power of superstition even as an age of enlightenment spreads across the land. The mystery is also well written but FACE DOWN UNDER THE WYTCH ELM belongs to Susanna, a woman rejecting the place society demands she accept.

Harriet Klausner

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an engrossing read, November 28, 2000

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Face Down Under the Wych Elm (Hardcover)

In my opinion, this is one of the best historical mystery series currently in publication. Susanna, Lady Appleton, is an inspiring and wonderful addition to the ranks of female investigators -- she's independent, brave and possesses a strong sense of justice. And Kathy Lynn Emerson has created a believable set of circumstances that allows for Susanna to maintain her independence and to conduct her affairs as she sees fit in Elizabethan England. Susanna is a widow and rich in her own right and (most importantly) possesses no male relatives who could try to curb and restrain her. This allows her to pretty much do as she pleases within reason. And when it is brought to her attention that one of her husband's former lovers, Constance Crane is now facing charges of murder and witchcraft, Susanna, who had in a previous adventure been similarly charged, feels that she must to do something to help the woman.

From her previous experience, she knows that women are especially vulnerable to such charges because the burden of proof lies with the accused rather than with the accuser and that such accusations are quite frequently grounded in superstitious beliefs and fantasies, not on fact and tangible evidence. Not believing in witchcraft herself, Susanna realises that she must look into the deaths more closely in order to prove Constance and her cousin Lucy innocent. And she is determined to prove that the Crane cousins have been wrongfully accused. But as she starts her investigation, Susanna comes to realise that there is something quite sinister afoot, and that if her suspicions are correct, then two innocent women are being framed for some more nefarious reason than fear and superstition. But can Susanna prove the Crane cousins's innocence, and before she herself is charged with witchcraft herself or killed?

This is a well written and tautly paced novel. And there are enough suspects with tenous claims to guilt to keep you guessing as to who the culprit is and what the motif could be. The pecarious fate that Constance and Lucy find themselves in is spot on. Kathy Lynn Emerson does a very good job in depicting the fear and the frustration and the anger that Constance and Lucy feel. She also does a very good job at making Elizabethan England come alive.

A brilliant installment in a wonderful series. I just wish that Kathy Lynn Emerson could write two or three Susanna Appleton mysteries a year!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A HUMDRUM HISTORICAL MYSTERY, December 14, 2000

By 

Kenri A. Mugleston - See all my reviews

This review is from: Face Down Under the Wych Elm (Hardcover)

This is the first book I have read by Ms. Emerson and it was no great shakes. There are other authors of historical mysteries that are much more descriptive of daily life and produce a much richer overall mystery (see my other reviews).

This novel has Susanna,Lady Appleton as detective extraordinaire. To me it seemed that Lady Appleton's serving girl Jennet did a better job of sleuthing than did Lady Appleton.

Susanna, in all her piety, has to help her dead husband's mistress Constance and Constance's cousin Lucy clear their names of witchcraft before they go to the gallows. This seems pretty strange to me. Susanna also has to outmaneuver her boyfriend's sly and hateful mother.