In “ The Serpent’s Tale,” Adelia and Rowley must thwart civil war when King Henry II accuses his estranged wife, Eleanor of poisoning his mistress. “Mistress of the Art of Death” was an A read for me. The author has made Henry a larger than life hero.
Oh and I loved King Henry II, who history has painted as the murderer of Thomas à Becket, an archbishop. The mystery takes center stage and has enough forensic details in it for fans of Karin Slaughter to enjoy. Needless to say that the romance is a side benefit. Adelia and Rowley become romantically involved and dance around each other a bit in the sequels. Besides Adelia, there is Rowley Picot, a tax man for the King who later becomes a bishop. The author is very good at rewriting the period so that as readers you feel as if you are being transported back to medieval times. In “ The Mistress of the Art of Death” Adelia is sent from Sicily to England at the request of King Henry II to investigate the murders of four children in Cambridge. I will dive briefly into the synopsis of each book I read and share my thoughts on each one. So Adelia’s adapted to the restrictions of this time period, using her Arabic manservant, Mansur, to pretend to be a doctor while she acts as his interpreter and assistant. The church doesn’t allow any desecration of the flesh after death. Also, women own no property and someone with Adelia’s knowledge about the dead, she isn’t allowed to touch the body. Women are not allowed to be doctors and are viewed as witches and burned at the stake for it. She’s an anatomist who studied at the University of Salerno, the only medical school at the time to allow women to study medicine.Īdelia says many times that medieval England is a backward thinking country. There are four books in this series thus far and the main protagonist is Adelia Aguilar.
Do you? If you do, you should check out Diana Norman (The Vizard Mask) who uses the pen name of Ariana Franklin for her Mistress of the Art of Death series set in 12th Century England featuring a female medieval pathologist.
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