Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Book review - "Nightshade" by P. C. Doherty


Nightshade, Doherty’s sixteenth installment of his Hugh Corbett medieval mysteries is a jumble of plot lines that seem to have no rhyme or reason until, of course, Corbett unravels the conundrum, but it still doesn't make a lot of sense.   


In Nightshade, Corbett is sent by King Edward I to recover a treasure trove stolen from the Templars during the Crusades from Lord Oliver Scrope, a ruthless and wealthy man, who ordered the slaughter of a dozen innocents in a settlement near his manor.

One of the problems I had with this book is the attacks by the mysterious sniper-bowman Sagittarius. When Corbett, Ranulf and Chanson arrive, they find Sagittarius has claimed several victims and they soon witness one of his attacks.  With a blast from a hunter’s horn, people are killed randomly by his deadly arrows.  Although Corbett describes how an archer can blow a horn and kill people in the middle of a busy marketplace, it still seems a bit far-fetched. 

One of the characters in this story is Scrope’s sister, Dame Marguerite who is a member of the community at St. Frideswide.  Could she be a forerunner of Margaret Frazer’s Dame Frevisse, who lives in the sixteenth century?  It could happen.  If so, St. Frideswide fell on hard times, since it is prosperous during Corbett’s time.

Nightshade was hard for me to get into and follow.  I started it before Christmas and now it is well past Easter.  As I mentioned earlier, Corbett’s solution to the mystery is convoluted and confusing.  Not one of his best, IMHO.

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