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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dead of Knight, November 5, 2000
I couldn't wait for this latest installment of Sharan Newman's series featuring the clever and clumsy Catherine and her stalwart spouse Edgar, set in the 1140's, this time back in Paris. Just as with her previous novels, I was more than satisfied. I discovered Catherine and Edgar in "Cursed in the Blood" just after our return from Scotland and the north of England this summer, visiting castles of our ancestors dating from the 11th and 12th centuries, primarily. Newman has such a thorough grounding in the history of the time and yet she has the ability to bring her characters to life. I raced through all of her previous novels in the series, except for the next to last one--on order!--just prior to this one, "To Wear the White Cloak". In this latest story, Catherine and Edgar were shocked upon their return from what seems to have been a dangerous and difficult journey to Germany to find a very dead (and moldy!) Knight of the Temple locked inside her father's home. The well-educated twosome have to counter the suspicion that quickly falls on their family, as before, by solving the murder themselves. This is accomplished while they deal with the everyday issues of raising their family in health and safety, establishing themselves financially, and even struggling with moral issue of birth control. You will do yourself a favor if you begin reading Newman's books--go back and read the others--if you have an appreciation for this time period and for an excellent mystery. (Note to fans of Ellis Peters: finally, someone to (almost) fill her shoes)
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
To Wear The White Cloak, October 11, 2000
Paris in 1147 is pure mayhem. Men leaving for the holy land have converged on the city, bringing with them vagabonds and conmen smelling opportunities to gull and steal. There is also evidence that the doomsday cult, the eonisits, has arrived. Starvation seems to be rampant, and a group of ruffians is attacking the Jews. All in all not the homecoming that Catherine had hoped for! Catherine, Edgar and family have finally made it home from Germany. However upon entering their house, they find the dead and festering body of a man garbed as one of the Templars. Catherine and Edgar naturally report this finding to the Marshall of the Knight Templars; and so it is with great outrage that they discover that they are somehow under suspicion for either knowing who committed the murder, or else witholding some vital clue of the crime. Catherine resolves to solve the mystery. However other matters keep getting in the way. She has to deal with the unsettling relationship that seems to be growing between her Jewish cousin Solomon, and Edgar's sister, Margaret; someone keeps trying to break into their house; and to cap it all, Jehan, that somewhat mad and vengeful knight from previous novels, has returned and is causing all kinds of problems by spreading rumours about Catherine and her family's involvement with witchcraft and lapsed Judaism. Too many things are getting in the way of solving the mystery of the dead Templar! This series keeps getting better and better. The historical detail is wonderful, and the plot, while a seemingly simple one is padded with enough sub-plots to keep the reader's interest. A truly enjoyable read!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
another superb installment, October 11, 2000
I'll freely admit that this is one of my all-time favorite mystery series. Sharan Newman has the gift of creating wonderfully memorable characters and placing them in a vividly realized setting. When I read her books, I feel myself walking through the streets of mid-twelfth-century Paris with Catherine and Edgar. This latest book is a superb addition to the series. Catherine, Edgar, and their family return to Paris from a long sojourn in Germany (chronicled in THE DIFFICULT SAINT) to find a dead body in their Paris house. Who was he? and how did his body come to be left in their house? The answers to these questions prove fascinating, as usual, while Newman continues to unfold the story of her major characters. This book, like the others in the series, is richly textured, not only in the historical details, but in the emotional lives of the characters. Newman is a fine historian, as always, but she's a stunning storyteller as well.
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