2014; 312 pages. Book 4 (out of 30) in the “Chronicles of Brother Hermitage” series. New Author? : No. Genres : Intrigue; Murder-Mystery; Historical Crime Fiction;
British Satire. Overall Rating : 8½*/10.
It was a strange request. But it came from King William’s right-hand
man, Le Pedvin, so it had to be legitimate.
And Brother Hermitage is officially “the King’s Investigator” so he’s
duty-bound to obey.
Hermitage and Wat are requested to
travel from England over to Normandy, France.
There they’ve been ordered to do some murder investigating, then locate a
noble named Lord Jean Bonneville, and arrest him for those crimes.
Le Pedvin doesn’t seem too
concerned about who the victim or victims might be. Any corpse will do, just so long as
Bonneville’s slapped in chains, then executed for the slayings.
Oh well, it’s an
all-expenses-paid trip to France, a place Hermitage has never visited. And since he is the King’s
Investigator, what could possibly go awry?
What’s To Like...
Hermitage, Wat and
Some Murder or Other is the third book I’ve read from this series, which
is set in England shortly after William the Conqueror defeated the Saxons at
the Battle of Hastings. We follow a
rather naïve monk (Brother Hermitage),
a worldly-wise porn weaver (Wat), and
an ahead-of-her-time woman (Cwen),
all of Saxon heritage, as they stumble through murder investigations.
This story takes place mainly
in Cabourg, which is an actual small coastal town in Normandy, and which hosted a key
battle by William the Conqueror on his way taking the Norman throne. I like that this series, although lighthearted in tone, still strives admirably to conform to historical facts.
The book is written in
English, not American. So fields are ploughed, buildings can be two-storey, messages are despatched, realisations
can be focussed upon, and your vigour may be sombre. I love learning foreign languages! I also liked that, no matter which characters
are involved, the dialogue was always full of wit.
Our heroes are pleasantly
surprised to discover that, upon arrival, they find that two murders had recently
been committed in little Cabourg. Both
victims were tradesmen and the tools of their trade were left on their corpses. A clue perhaps? But if so, what is the message? We’ll leave that to the King’s Investigator.
The ending was quite good,
with a twist or two that made it both surprising and logical. All the murders are resolved and Hermitage
and friends manage to comply with Le Pedvin’s edict that Bonneville be done away no matter how false the accusations are.
There’s a short teaser (one sentence)
at the end of the story for the next book in the series. Our heroes apparently are headed for Wales!
Ratings…
Amazon:
4.5/5
based on 883 ratings and 100 reviews.
Goodreads: 4.37/5 based on 368
ratings and 17 reviews.
Excerpts...
“But Le Pedvin said…”
“And do you believe Le Pedvin? The one who just trampled your herbs to
death?” Wat asked.
“Oh, well,” Hermitage began. In all his investigations, well the few of
them he had completed so far, people kept telling untruths. It was both disturbing and disappointing. If they only told the truth when they were
asked, and as they should, things would be so much easier. “You think he might have been lying?”
“Do I think he might have been lying? Do I think the sun will come up
tomorrow? Do I think Druids do it in the
woods? No, I’m absolutely sure he was
lying.” (loc. 489)
“Are you saying the man was murdered by an
ox?”
“Certainly was.”
Neither Blamour nor the old men on their
bench seemed to think that this was in any way peculiar.
“That’s ridiculous,” Hermitage eventually
got his thoughts in some order, “oxen can’t commit murder.”
“You tell that to the bloke who’s just been
trampled to death,” Blamour retorted.
“Being trampled to death is not the same as
being murdered,” Hermitage explained.
Surely these simple country folk weren’t quite that simple. “Being trampled to death is an accident.”
“Not if the ox means it.” (loc. 3224)
Kindle Details…
Hermitage,
Wat and Some Murder or Other currently sells for $3.99 at Amazon. The rest of the books in the series range in
price from $2.99 to $4.99, with the most recent books the higher-priced ones.
“What are you doing
with your head on?” (loc.
4778)
The quibbles with Hermitage, Wat and Some Murder or Other are mostly
a repeat of those for the previous book, which is reviewed here. The punctuation errors are atrocious,
especially comma abuse and missing periods.
Typos also abound, such as scatted/scattered;
maybe/may be; Able/Abel; wrong doing/wrongdoing; and the frequently
encountered discretely/discreetly and
lead/led.
OTOH, cusswords were a rarity,
just two in the first quarter of the book, and mostly of the mild, eschatological variety. Hats off to
Howard of Warwick for being a sufficiently talented writer so that excessive
profanity wasn’t resorted to.
That’s about all I can grouse
about. The three books I’ve read thus far in
this series have all been literary treats for me, and here’s hoping that somewhere
down the line, the author makes use of a top-notch editor to peruse his
manuscripts.
8½ Stars. One last thing. If you find yourself in Cabourg, like Hermitage and his friends did, and you have occasion to mention the House of Margaret, try to do so without sniggering.
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