Mistress of the Art of Death

This book was delicious! I gobbled it up in about 4 days, and it's not a short book. This is the first book in the series by Ariana Franklin, where we meet Adelia (the title Mistress) when she comes to England to find out who is killing the children of Cambridge - and why the town's Jewish citizens have been framed for the murders.

Again, the characters are all beautifully drawn, particularly Adelia; the boy Ulf; Adelia's companion Master Simon; and Sir Rowan Picot, King Henry II's "fixer". Plus there's a whole cast of interesting townspeople who seem very Shakespearean to me - they are minor characters who are finely wrought. Plus the mystery just pulls you along - I had some ideas of who the murderer was, but I wasn't sure until he was revealed.

There is also some serious commentary on the treatment of Jews throughout time. For instance (and I have no idea how true this is), it seemed that prior to Henry II, there was only ONE Jewish cemetery in England, and that was in London. That meant that any Jew who died in England had to get to London pronto in order to be buried within the proper time frame. Burial was not permitted in a Christian cemetery. King Henry changed that (or so the author would have us believe).

Historically true or not, this was another great story from a gifted author. And I started the second book in the series on this morning on the train...