Whiter Than the Lily (Hawkenlye Mysteries 7) [Paperback]

Alys Clare (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (2004)
• ASIN: B000OVMTLS
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Entertaining medieval Mystery, March 19, 2005

By 

J. Chippindale (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whiter Than the Lily (Hawkenlye Mysteries 7) (Hardcover)

Sir Josse has been invited to visit his neighbour Brice's manor and while he is there Brice says that he would like Josse to meet some friends of his. Not wishing to appear impolite Sir Josse agrees to travel with him to his friends.

When they arrive Sir Josse finds that there is an ulterior motive to their visit. The elderly knight he has been brought to see has a young and beautiful wife of seventeen or eighteen who is devoted to her husband and although they have been trying since their marriage they have been unable to conceive a child. The knight Sir Ambrose has been told of Josse's involvement with Hawkenlye Abbey and the success they have had with healing the sick in mind and body.

After speaking with Sir Josse, Ambrose agrees to allow his wife Galiena to go on ahead to the Abbey with her maid and groom and he will follow in a couple of days. His hope is that the nuns can help his wife with their inability to have a child.

However when Galiena arrives at the Abbey she is alone and her demeanour is totally different to the happy and devoted wife the nuns had expected. A tragic death sets Sir Josse on the path of danger and intrigue. The Abbess Helewise becomes embroiled in the same dangers that face Josse and the perils reach out to the Abbey itself . . .

4.0 out of 5 stars People aren't always who they seem, July 7, 2010

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whiter Than the Lily (Hawkenlye Mysteries 7) (Hardcover)

First Sentence: The walled garden lay as if stunned under the hot May sunshine.

Josse d'Acquin is taken to the Isle of Oxney where he meets an older man and his young wife who despair of having a child. When asked, Josse supports their idea of the wife traveling to The Abbey of Hawkenlye where Josse's friend, Abbess Helewise, and her nuns might help the young wife. Once there, the woman keep refuses examination and keeps herself sequestered. The husband arrives later, much addled and unwell. But for Josse, who comes to the Abbey, something doesn't add up, particularly when the woman dies and is found to have been pregnant.

Vivid descriptions are a hallmark of Ms. Clare's writing whether it is of the area in spring, thunderstorms, or of dreams. That, along with a lovely, gentle humor to the author's voice and a touch of the paranormal to the story, although much less than in some of the previous books, are some of the reasons why I so enjoyed this book.

English history is an interest of mine. Ms. Clare goes beyond providing interesting information and facts. She views those facts in terms of their impact on the lives of the people such as the strain on people to raise money for King Richard's ransom... "Although Helewise understood why such an expensive campaign had been necessary, a port of her could not help wondering whether knights, lords and kings with the passion and the thrill of holy war filling their heads ought to pause just for a moment to wonder if it was all worth it."

As always, I read for interesting, realistic characters. I love that, in spite of being Abbess, Helowise had a full life prior to becoming Abbess. I appreciate Josse's uncertainties and frustration at the realization of how little he knows and how few facts he has in trying to learn what happened. However, it's the relationship between Helewise and Jose; one of friendship, respect and support but with the affection always contained, that is the central focus of the stories.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am pleased I've many more books ahead of me. I do recommend the series and suggest reading it in order.

WHITER THAN THE LILY (Hist. Mys-Josse d'Acquin/Abbess Helewise-England-1190s) - G+

Clare, Alys - 7th in series

Hodder & Stoughton, ©2004, UK Hardcover - ISBN: 0340831111

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Plague among the Hawkenlyes, April 7, 2008

By 

Laurie A. Atkinson "Scrutator" (Wills Point, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Whiter Than the Lily (Hawkenlye Mysteries) (Paperback)

A good outing for Clare, who is managing to make the People of the Woods into less than supermen, and Joanna is developing into more of a real person from what my older boy dismissed as a "Mary Sue," i.e., an annoyingly perfect character. I will point out that the sickness in the novel appears to the physician to be more like Ebolavirus than Bubonic Plague, but I doubt the medievals could have told the difference.