In the year 1447, powerful men from all the realm of England have been summoned to Parliament in the great pilgrimage town of Bury St. Edmunds. Most come for the straightforward business of making laws and passing taxes, but a small group of great nobles are planning to use this chance to bring down, by treachery and treason, their greatest rival. Against her will and under cover of her friendship with Lady Alice of Suffolk, her high-placed cousin, Dame Frevisse is brought from her nunnery into the fringes of this swirl of ...
Read More
In the year 1447, powerful men from all the realm of England have been summoned to Parliament in the great pilgrimage town of Bury St. Edmunds. Most come for the straightforward business of making laws and passing taxes, but a small group of great nobles are planning to use this chance to bring down, by treachery and treason, their greatest rival. Against her will and under cover of her friendship with Lady Alice of Suffolk, her high-placed cousin, Dame Frevisse is brought from her nunnery into the fringes of this swirl of politics and plotting by the ambitious Bishop of Winchester. Meant to observe and report to him what she sees, she is instead drawn into the very centre of treachery and death encircling the throne of England. The pity is that desperate acts of loyalty and love are not always enough to save men from murder and an innocent man from the gallows.
Read Less
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fine in Very Good jacket. Book 1st ed., preceding British edition. Fine in dust jacket lightly wrinkled at rear panel as from being damp but not damaging the covers at all. In the year 1447, powerful men from all the realm of England have been summoned to Parliment in the great pilgrimage town of Bury St. Edmunds. There is intrigue and murder in the political turmoil surrounding the King of England, as a small group of nobles are planning to use this chance to bring down their greatest rival. Into this den and against her will, comes Dame Frevisse under cover of her friendship with Lady Alice of Suffolk.
While I've never read a Frazer novel I didn't like, I believe this one to be the best of the series, even though preceding and especially subsequent books have outstanding merits of their own.
Sister Frevisse herself is exceptionally real in this book, and the seamless way that her personal "life" is integrated into the history of England at the point in time the novel is set makes it to my mind the strongest of the series.
Court intrigue so often devolves into melodrama; Frazer's skill at narration and character creation fuses in this novel with her skill at making 'history' become reality as we read.
Frazer alternates Frevisse's cloistered life with novels set in the wider world. This one is set at Bury St Edmonds in the midst of a meeting of Parliament, where treason and plotting abound.
The novel also brings back Joliffe the actor and introduces several allies in Frevisse's task to observe and report on the Parliament for the Bishop of Winchester.
As is common with Frevisse novels, there are not a lot of bodies, but there is a lot of ratiocination as well as a narrative skill combined with elegant prose.
If you like historical mystery fiction, get the Margaret Frazer novels and read them in order of publication. You'll grow to love Frevisse as the rest of us avid Frazer fans do.
