Book Review - Margaret Frazer's "The Squire's Tale"

Sometimes I wonder if authors who write a series of novels run out of ideas or get to appoint they have nothing left to offer their readers.  Such is the case for The Squire’s Tale, the tenth in Margaret Frazer’s Dame Frevisse series.  In The Maiden’s Tale, we got a glimpse of the intrigue of King Henry VI’s reign.  In The Reeve’s Tale, we saw how convoluted land ownership could be by family ties, who bequeathed what to whom, who has the most money, etc.

In The Squire’s Tale, Frazer attempts to show us how disputes were settled without turning to lawyers or some form of government, but it's mostly a family feud.  Fully three-fourths of the novel passes before the mystery starts.  Up to that Point, Dame Frevisse and Sister Claire have been asked to escort a young lady back to her guardian, Sir Robert Fenner, whom Frevisse met in Frazer’s first novel of this series.  Robert had been wounded when family members who have a quarrel with his wife attacked him to confiscate his ward and force her into marriage.  Katherine is sent to St. Frideswide for protection.

When she is recalled back to the manor, Frevisse and Claire accompany her.  For most of the novel, Frevisse watches the drama around her, wishing she wasn’t there, wishing she didn’t have to see everything, and hear everything.  The story tends to bog down.

I enjoy reading Frazer’s works but this one is far from her best output.