Review of The Raven in the Foregate by Ellis Peters

Saying something negative about Ellis Peters is tantamount to criticizing Agatha Christie. Peters’ Brother Cadfael series, set in twelfth century England, has been made into a television series featuring Derek Jacobi as the monk/sleuth, is evidence of just how popular her work is.


Still, the twelfth novel The Raven in the Foregate doesn’t quite measure up to the standards set by the previous eleven books.

Set at Christmas in 1141, Abbot Radulfus returns from a meeting with the bishop with a young priest Ailnoth, assigned to the parish of the Holy Cross. Ailnoth quickly makes himself unpopular by his strict, overzealous and selfish ways. It isn’t long before half the village has reason to hate him. Therefore, it comes as no surprise to the reader when his body is discovered in the mill pond with a wound to the back of his head.

Could it have been the baker whom Ailnoth accused of cheating his customers? Or could it have been the father of the baby who died shortly after birth unshriven because the priest refused to interrupt his own prayers? Or maybe it was the sympathizers to Empress Maud who has been beaten back by her cousin King Stephen in her efforts to overtake the throne?

It is only Brother Cadfael who can sort through the murky clues to discover what really happened to the priest, but he seems to spend as much time investigating the death of Ailnoth as he does sheltering the young man whose aunt accompanied the priest to Shrewsbury. Since Cadfael has no allegiance to either King Stephen or Empress Maud, he knows that the current public opinion is in favor of the king and the young man is ready to take up arms for Maud.

The conclusion of the mystery is almost a disappointment, as it seems that Cafael, usually extremely observant, should miss an important clue that reveals the truth until the last moment. As in previous novels, he’s pieced together fragments of clues and used his keen intelligence to figure it out.

Another aspect is a ruse by Hugh Beringar to ferret out the murderer. It’s out of character for the shrewd sheriff and it falls flat. One wonders why Peters included this in the story.

The Raven in the Foregate just didn’t have the magic of most Peters’ novels.

Review of The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry

I’ve always found the brief but violent history of Czar Nicholas II and his family so I’m aware of Rasputin’s macabre prophecy that if anyone from the royal family or their relatives assassinated him, the czar would die within two years. His prognostication came true.


In July 1918, Nicholas, Alexandria, their five children and four servants were shot to death in a basement in a house in Ekaterinburg. Their bodies were buried in the woods several miles away.

When the burial site was exhumed, two skeletons were missing, those of Aleksei and Anastasia. Berry’s book, The Romanov Prophecy, builds on the premise that the tow children survived the massacre by would-be assassins and secreted away.

The novel opens with Miles Lord, an Attorney from Atlanta, almost being assassinated on the streets of Moscow by mysterious men. A colleague is killed and Miles is on the run. In Russia to help restore the monarchy, Lord unknowingly stumbles on information that could jeopardize the current claimant to the throne, a man backed by millions of American dollars.

Lord finds himself criss-crossing the globe with beautiful dancer Akilina Petrovna, following clues to a cryptic message and trying to stay a step ahead of Russian hit men. Could Aleksei and Anastasia have eventually made their way to America? And if so, could there be direct descendants of Nicholas II with stronger ties to the throne than the man currently seeking the crown?

It’s a great basis and it makes for an exciting page-turner but anyone who has read Robert Massie’s incredible work on the Romanovs will know none of them made it out of the basement room alive. He has an interesting theory, well-grounded in facts, on where the two missing bodies are.

Nonetheless, The Romanov Prophecy is an intriguing novel, reminiscent of Dan Brown’s work. From the synopsis, I thought it would be more of a spy novel, the likes of Daniel Silva and Brad Thor, but I wasn’t disappointed. Berry’s story is a great thrill ride through the streets of Moscow and San Francisco.

Queen of Disco Donna Summer has passed away

The beautiful and gifted Donna Summer died today at the young age of 63.  She is one of my all-time favorites since way back in high school, during the height of the disco craze.  I waited anxiously to get her album "Crayons" when it was released back in 2008.  It was like being back in high school waiting for her next album.  The winner of 5 Grammys, she, her beautiful voice and music will be missed terribly.

Review of Death Comes as Epiphany by Sharan Newman

I started reading this series some time ago but confused and put it down. After speaking to author Sharan Newman several years ago at Bouchercon, I realized that I hadn’t read the series in the proper sequence. I decided to try again, from the beginning.


Newman’s Catherine LeVendeur is very reminiscent of Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma. Both are young reliegieux who are well-read, intelligent and stubborn.

The first of the Catherine LeVendeur series, Death Comes as Epiphany, opens with the main character being sent on a secret mission by Heloise, the abbess of the Paraclete abbey. A psalter written by the nuns of Paraclete, mostly by Catherine herself, has been desecrated and accusations of heresy have been levied against Heloise’s beloved Abelard.

To give the investigation a cover, Catherine returns home in disgrace as part of the ruse. Her family, with the exception of her sister Agnes, is not happy to have her back. In fact, her mother refuses to acknowledge her presence. Catherine endures her family’s wrath in order to gain access to the library at Saint-Denis where the vandalized psalter is kept. It isn’t long before the sculptor Garnulf, working on the new abbey church at St. Denis falls to his death, nearly landing on Catherine.

The sculptor’s apprentice Edgar isn’t all he purports to be. Nevertheless, Catherine and Edgar form an unlikely alliance, each realizing the other has secrets.

Confounding the mystery of the psalter and the death of the sculptor is the presence of an enigmatic hermit near St. Denis who has many pilgrims seeking his blessings and cures. Catherine almost finds out the hard way just how the beautiful hermit administers to his female supplicants. She is horrified to discover what close friends and even family members have done in hopes of receiving the blessings they desperately seek.

Slowly, Catherine pieces together the seemingly unrelated events, stolen jewels, a rising body count and strange monks to find a disturbing conclusion.

The basis of the mystery in Death Comes as Epiphany is rather disturbing and may turn a few stomachs like mine. If there is a basis in fact, like many historical mysteries, it would be a chilling revelation. Despite the walk on the bizarre side, I enjoyed reading this a second time. I’m ready to start the series in the correct sequence now.

Review of Daughters of Summer by Sara Conway

I read Conway’s first Lord Godwin mystery Murder on Good Friday and enjoyed it enough that I didn’t hesitate when I saw her second novel, Daughters of Summer.


I should’ve hesitated longer.

Murder on Good Friday actually had a basis in historical fact, young boys being murdered on Good Friday to focus blame on the local Jewish population in thirteenth century England. Nothing like that in Daughters of Summer, in which a wealthy merchant is poisoned shortly after learning his wife is being unfaithful. Suspicion immediately falls on the old man who gave the merchant herbs for a stomach ailment, the villagers thinking he made a simple mistake.

Unfortunately, most of the novel focuses on Lord Godwin’s relationship with the Lady Constance. The cunning Fulk d’ Oily (how’s that for a bad guy’s name?) is determined to marry her, despite her refusals.

The mystery takes a back seat to the adventures of Lady Constance and Godwin figures out the mystery only when he overhears an unrelated remark.

Since he has no proof, he’s content to let the matter be. The conclusion almost seems to be an afterthought by the author, as if she suddenly realized Daughters was a mystery, not a medieval romance.

The author’s writing style also makes this book a difficult read, e.g. changes in point of view from one character to another within a scene, telling instead of showing. It’s enough to put me off reading any more of Conway’s work.

Review of Last Rituals by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

The debut mystery novel, Last Rituals, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (author of children’s books) is a bizarre and intriguing journey into medieval literature on witchcraft and modern day Iceland, a mystery surrounding scholars at the university in Reykjavik and including dark pages from Europe’s past.


A college student is found strangled and his eyes cut out and his body is covered by strange symbols. Thora Gudmundsdottir, an attorney and mother of two, is contacted by the student’s wealthy family from Germany, asking for her help. They feel the man arrested and charged with their son’s murder is innocent. They don’t trust the police so they want her to find the truth.

Although reluctant to accept, the fee they offer her is too tempting to pass up. The money has a caveat. The family sends a representative to Iceland from Germany to work with Thora in her investigation. With Matthew Reich, the family rep, Thora discovers the murdered student Harald Guntlieb had a fascination bordering on obsession with the medieval history of witchcraft and witch hunts.

It becomes obvious soon in their investigation that Harald Guntlieb’s circle of college friends are not tell the whole truth, to the police or to Thora. The eclectic gang bands together to hide something from her and Matthew.

I’m not familiar with the medieval references or events that pepper Sigurdardottir’s intriguing mystery but one doesn’t need to be a student of history to enjoy it. Sometimes the story seems to bog down under the weight of the historical details of the events the murdered student was studying. Much of the novel/investigation centers around a fifteenth century book, Malleus Maleficarum, or The Witch’s Hammer, a treatise on witchcraft. It’s interesting to follow the trail of medieval literature and art on this topic as Thora and Matthew discover the disturbing reason for Harald’s mutilation.

The cause of his death, however, is something worthy of an Alex Morgan story.

What drew me to Last Rituals was the inclusion of medieval history but it’s well-centered in modern day Iceland. Sigurdardottir gives the reader a great taste of Icelandic culture and way of life. Great reading for any mystery buff.  Her second novel proves to be spooky fun as well.

Review of Home in Time for Christmas by Heather Graham

I enjoyed Heather Graham’s Flynn brothers trilogy because although her stories are het romance/erotica, she includes a wonderful paranormal aspect to her novels. In the Flynn brothers stories, that aspect bordered on supernatural and in one case, Deadly Harvest, almost stepped across the line.


In Home in Time for Christmas, the paranormal element is time travel. During the Revolutionary War, Jake Mallory is about to hanged by the British for his anti-British publications. His adopted sister Serena casts a strange spell with rose petals (in December!) and he suddenly finds himself in the twenty-first century.

Melody Tarleton, on her way home for the holidays nearly runs over him as he appears before her eyes and her car. Convinced he is a re-enactment actor/nut case suffering from amnesia, she takes him home to her family since she has no idea what else to do with him.

Her father, mother and brother accept Jake into their home with little questions to Melody’s explanation. Mark Hathaway, the man Melody is supposed to be getting engaged to isn’t swayed and becomes suspicious of the enigmatic gentleman, who bears more than a passing resemblance to him.

As hard as she tries to keep his secret although not believing it herself, Melody is surprised to find out that her parents have pieced together how she really came to meet Jake and they have no issue with him being from the past. In fact, they have an idea how to return him to his own time. And the revelation gives her little comfort.

Despite her misgivings, she is convinced that her mother and father know what they are doing and helps them to the novel’s final and somewhat predictable conclusion.

In the Flynn brothers trilogy, Graham put more emphasis on the paranormal aspects, but in Home in Time for Christmas, much of the story is spent on Melody trying to explain to everyone and herself Jake’s sudden appearance and their budding romance.

I prefer the stronger paranormal angle to the romance but I’m probably outnumbered in that respect. In the trilogy, the paranormal phenomenon that formed the premise for those stories was a bit more complex, more detailed than a doorway opened in time with rose petals. We’ve also seen this scenario before: a person about to be hanged is spirited away to another time in both “Dark Shadows” and “The Twilight Zone”.

But if you prefer romance to paranormal, Home in Time for Christmas isn’t too spooky to be romantic.