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4.0 out of 5 stars
The seventh book in a great series that's still going strong, July 18, 2009
This review is from: The Moneylender of Toulouse: A Fools' Guild Mystery (Fools' Guild Mysteries) (Hardcover)
The Moneylender of Toulouse is the seventh book in Alan Gordon's highly enjoyable Fools' Guild series of medieval mysteries. To anyone not familiar with this series, you will need to start with the first book, Thirteenth Night, as the series actually does progress through actual history and the events do affect the characters' lives.
Gordon began the series with a remarkable conceit: his two principal characters are Feste (Theophilos to his fellow members of the Fools' Guild) and Viola (now guild-named Claudia) from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, with Gordon's Thirteenth Night taking up the story and telling us what became of them afterwards. What Gordon also does is to ground his stories in actual history, but with the premise of a secret organization - the Fools' Guild - working behind the scenes to guide events, trying to make things better if they can or to at least keep them from being any worse.
In The Moneylender of Toulouse, the year is still 1204 and events pick up right where they left off at the end of The Lark's Lament, the previous book in the series. The Fools' Guild is in the process of regrouping from attacks by the church under Pope Innocent III, who regards them as rivals and interlopers in church affairs. In The Lark's Lament, Theophilos, along with his wife Claudia, their apprentice Helga and their infant daughter Portia, had been sent by the Guild to France to convince Folc, a former Guild member who is now an abbot of a monastery, that his services are again needed, this time as the new Bishop of Toulouse. After having succeeded in the first part of their mission, Theophilos and his family/troup must now undertake the second part: getting the old Bishop of Toulouse to step down, whether he wants to or not. The murder of a local moneylender that occurs shortly after their arrival seems to hold the key to accomplishing their goal.
As always, Gordon keeps things moving in terms of the mystery but at the same time keeps us intimately involved in Theophilos and Claudia's lives as they make their living, raise their infant daughter Portia and train their apprentice Helga. One of the continuing delights of the serious is seeing how seriously the professional fools of the guild take their fooling. In The Moneylender of Toulouse, we get to see Theophilos not only deal with the problem of being appointed the new Chief Fool of Toulouse over the heads of two veteran fools, Jordan and Pelardit, but also the problem of telling them how to freshen up their act:
"We sat down to a proper dinner, with Jordan, Claudia and me trading stories while Pelardit caused Helga and the two boys fits of giggling with various bits of sleight of hand and some droll expressions.
-We finished with some lemon cakes that we had purchased from a local baker, and down some more wine, feeling fat and happy.
'Well, as loath as I am to work after all that, we must,' I said. 'Let's see that routine again.'
-The two fools grabbed their instruments.
'Pelardit, a song if you will,' started Jordan, and they began tuning their instruments.
'Stop there,' I said. 'The joke of that routine is that every time Pelardit gets his string in tune with yours, yours slips to a different tone, right?'
'Right,' said Jordan.
'If that's going to work, Pelardit has to get angrier,' I said. 'He has to be on the verge of braining you with his instrument when you launch into the song.'
'I'm not sure...' said Jordan, but Pelardit nodded immediately and gestured for him to start over.
-The timing was better, and Pelardit's rage more extreme. Helga and the boys started to laugh.
'Better,' I said. 'Now, Pelardit -- you have to let the anger build until you are about to lose control, but then the music starts and soothes you. Let yourself get completely carried away by it each time.'
-He nodded, and when Jordan began bowing away, Pelardit's face slipped into swooning, swaying rapture.
'That's good,' I said. 'And when that's interrupted by him poking you--'
Jordan's bow jabbed at the unsuspecting fool's eye, and he flew into silent paroxysms of rage and pain.
'That's all well and good for him,' said Jordan, 'but where are my laughs?'
'Yours come from being completely oblivious to what he is going through, even though you're the cause of it,' I explained. 'We have to increase the danger level, so that every time he seeks revenge, you do something to thwart it while remaining blissfully ignorant. It's all in the timing--'
-We worked on several bits of physical business, culminating with a now-homicidal Pelardit swinging his lute at Jordan's head right as the other ducked to retrieve his fallen bow, the momentum of the swing carrying the instrument around to strike the mute fool in the back of his head. He stared for a moment, then his eyes rolled upward and he sagged into the straightening body of Jordan.
'Never could hold his wine,' sighed Jordan, looking fondly at his partner.
'Not bad,' I said. 'Don't anticipate the reactions as much. Let's run the whole thing...'
-And they did, even getting a laugh from Martine, a sound so novel that both of them broke character to look at her in amazement.
'It was funny,' she protested. 'I'm supposed to laugh when it's funny.'
'But I told you that years ago,' fumed Jordan in mock marital exasperation. 'It took you this long to get the joke?'
'It's funny, now,' she said. 'Well done, both of you.'
My only quibble with this book in is regarding the motivation of one of the characters responsible for a second murder that occurs after the first. I can't go into detail without revealing too much. All I can say is that when the motive for that character was revealed, I didn't buy into it. That said, however, the book was still quite an enjoyable read. It also introduces some new characters, most notably the silent veteran jester Pelardit (who steals every scene he's in), and it ends in such a way that an eighth book is clearly in the works. Fans of the series will not be disappointed. Highly recommended.
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