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A Parliament of Spies: A Mystery

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These are chaotic times in England under the unsteady rule of King Richard II and the viable threat of a French invasion. In these dangerous times, Abbess Hildegard prefers to rusticate in prayer.

However, though she insists she has no skills, York Archbishop Alexander Neville orders the nun to come with him to the Parliament meeting at Westminster in London, where she will be his spy; a role she is extremely uncomfortable with. Before they leave York, Neville assigns her a short clock to investigate the murder of Martin his saucier drowned in a wine vat filled with water and barley. The road to London is filled with violence as Hildegard thinks no place not even near the monarch is safe in these dangerous divisive partisan times.

This is a great medieval historical thriller as murder, mayhem and politics converge in fourteenth century England. The storyline is fast-paced as a power struggle that makes Machiavelli seems like an amateur manipulator. Timely, readers will relish Cassandra Clark's strong entertaining Abbess Hildegard tale (see The Law of Angels).

Harriet Klausner

Cassandra Clark's series of medieval mysteries feature Abbess Hildegard of Meaux in York, England, in an unusual blend of Machiavellian politics and private concerns, unusual because of Hildegard's commitment to the religious life and her capabilities as an investigator with forensic skills, a trusted confidant of the king, Richard II and his loyal supporters. The country is awash in controversy, still suffering the effects of a rebellion, Richard calling a meeting of Parliament in London as the French threaten an imminent invasion. With Lancastrian forces infiltrating the court, Richard, a Yorkist, is fighting for the support of the people, the city seething with factions and plots. As part of the entourage of Alexander Neville, the Archbishop of York, Hildegard is in a pivotal position to monitor the

behaviors of those on the dangerous roads from York to London.

True to form, where Hildegard goes, mysterious events transpire: a shocking death on the eve of the journey; an ambush by armed men who search the carts; a secret shared by the archbishop, a savage attack on the archbishop's falconer and the ominous presence of suspicious characters in the entourage. But these are only the first hints of trouble in a tale salted with threat, rumors of a plot against the king and a growing menace that dogs Hildegard wherever she goes. After three novels of the abbess's successful investigations, Clark pulls out all the stops this time, Hildegard confronted not only by enemies of her cause but villains a time before she took her vows come back to call her to an accounting. Hildegard is pulled in two directions, the demands of her king and benefactors and a reckoning with the past grown ever more dangerous.

Clark has created a richer, more complex protagonist in this novel, no longer just the devoted servant of her superiors, but a fully-fleshed woman caught at a crossroads, a carefully-planned future shattered by turbulent emotions and great loss. An affectionate admiration for the devoted Abbot of Meaux, Hubert de Courcy- a recurring thread throughout the series- is cast into shadow by the events in A Parliament of Spies. The cause more critical, the stakes higher, Richard II's Parliament yields politically-changed results, but it is Hildegard, the clever, loyal king's spy, whose life is forever altered by her sojourn in London, the next chapter in her evolution anxiously awaited in a series grown more intriguing with Clark's growing assurance. Luan Gaines/2012.