The Widows Guild - Anna Castle

    2015; 325 pages.  Book 3 (out of 8) in the “Francis Bacon Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Historical Mystery; England, Historical Fiction.  Laurels: 2017 Historical Novel Society Awards (Longlisted).  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    London, August 29, 1588.  A city in turmoil.  Religious fervor runs rampant.

 

    Queen Elizabeth 1 sits on the throne, and England has converted from Catholicism to Anglicanism.  It is not a good time to be a Catholic.  There’s even an official body, the Recusancy Committee, whose job it is to probe the loyalties of known Catholics.  If you’re found to be more loyal to the Pope than to the Crown, it’s imprisonment for you.

 

    It’s also Alice Trumpington’s (aka “Trumpet”) wedding night.  She’s not looking forward to it.  Her husband-to-be, Viscount Surdeval, is old and in frail health, and she’s putting off consummating the marriage for as long as possible.  She’s marrying strictly for money and nobility.

 

    Alas, Viscount Surdeval dies on his wedding night!  Under very suspicious circumstances.  Maybe Trumpet did it.  But no, she wasn’t even in the bedroom that evening.  She spent the night in a separate room in the estate.  With another man, Thomas Clarady.

 

    Not exactly the best alibi to have, is it?

 

What’s To Like...

    The Widows Guild is the third book in Anna Castle’s engaging “Francis Bacon Mystery” series, in which the famous physicist is reimagined as a royal investigator.  Francis is part of a legal society put together by Queen Elizabeth herself to do investigative work on behalf of her and other upper-class gentlepersons.

 

    Since Viscount Surdeval was a Nobleman, his fellow Upper-Crusters are quite anxious to know how and why he died on his wedding night, and assign Francis to that task.  I liked that he’s not a super-sleuth, but rather is a nerdy individual who, via questions and observations, hopes to logically figure out what happened and who did it.

 

    This series is unique in that we follow a “team” of investigators as they do their sleuthing.  Francis is nominally in charge, but the other team-members—Thomas Clarady, Benjamin Whitt, and yes, Trumpet herself—all conduct their own investigations, and none of them, including Francis, fully disclose their discoveries to the others.

 

    The case quickly takes some weird turns.  No weapon is found; indeed, no wound is found on Viscount Surdeval’s corpse.  Hmm.  Maybe he died of natural causes.  But no, someone took the time to carve a cross into his chest.  Is it a sign that religion plays a part in this?  Unfortunately for our heroes, the knife used to carve the cross was not left behind.

 

    Things build to a very tense ending, that somehow didn’t feel over-the-top.  The perpetrator is cunningly trapped into revealing the who-how-and-why of the misdeed, and will face the appropriate judgment.  Needless to say, my guess as to the whodunit was turned out to be totally wrong.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 470 ratings and 51 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.23*/5, based on 356 ratings and 47 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Fustilarian (n.): a lowlife scoundrel.

Others: Tinto (n.).

 

Excerpts...

    “What do you think about me?  About this!”  She held out her hands to display herself.  “About what you see.”

    “Ah.”  Tom pretended to consider it.  “Well, I think you are the most perfect vision of maidenly beauty I have ever seen.  I think they should hold a competition among the greatest sculptors in Europe to craft your image in marble as a model for future generations of womankind to strive toward.”

    She blinked, and her mouth twisted in a complicated half frown.  “That almost sounded like a compliment.”

    “It almost was one.”  (pg. 18)

 

    “Then you’ve identified the murderer?” Lady Russell asked.  “Well done, Nephew!”

    Some of the women began to applaud, but Bacon held up both hands to stop them.  “No, my good ladies and gentlewomen, I must admit I have as yet no proof sufficient to bring the murderer to justice.”

    “But you know who it is,” Lady Russell said.

    Bacon pinched the pleats in his left wrist ruff while his gaze wandered over the tops of the women’s heads.  Trumpet recognized the evasive mannerisms.  He either didn’t know or he wasn’t going to tell them.  He would babble pompously for a few minutes and then run away.

    “Suspicions have evolved in such directions as to preclude any definitive verification of culpability.”  (pg. 251)

 

Kindle Details…

    The Widows Guild sells for $1.99 right now at Amazon.  The other books in the series range in price from *free* to $4.99, with the prices increasing as the series progresses.  I’ve also read the first book in Anna Castle’s *The Professor & Mrs. Moriarty Mystery* series, and quite enjoyed it.  The four books in that series all cost $4.99.

 

News delivered by demons could never be good.  (pg. 271)

    There’s only a miniscule amount of profanity in The Widows Guild, I counted only a mere 9 cusswords in the whole tale, none of which were f-bombs.  When the situation called for swearing, two phrases, presumably authentic Medieval epithets, were used: “God’s teeth” and “God’s bollocks”.  I thought that worked incredibly well.

 

    I noted only two typos: wanted_put/wanted_to_put and any_more/anymore.  Kudos to whoever did the editing. I *thought* I’d caught an anachronism when “Occam’s Razor” came up in the text.  But checking in Wikipedia revealed that the eponymous source of this concept, William of Ockham, lived in the 1300s, so Francis Bacon and company may well have been familiar with it.

 

    There were a couple instances where it sounded like someone’s sexuality was being questioned; plus one character engaging in cross-dressing, and being very comfortable doing so.  Maybe I am over-thinking these parts.  Mayhap they’ll be addressed in subsequent books in this series.

 

    I found The Widows Guild to be an entertaining read, full of witty repartee and a stellar blend of well-researched Historical Fiction and well-developed Murder-Mystery.  I particularly liked the use of 16^th-century vocabulary, including the likes of jakes, galligaskins, partlet, doublet, wherry, and ballyrag.  It gave the setting a realistic “feel” like I was walking alongside Francis Bacon in 1588 London, and I’m looking forward to reading Book 4 in the series, Publish and Perish.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  Trumpet’s life is saved by her being absent from the marriage bed on her wedding night.  That’s good.  But if her marriage was never consummated, it means she is not heir to the Surdeval Estate.  Instead, Surdeval’s relatives would inherit it.  That’s not so good.  An embarrassing test of Trumpet’s maidenhead is the only way to settle this.  What should she do?

Mission Clockwork - Arthur Slade

   2018; 251 pages.  Book 1 (out of 4) in the “Mission Clockwork” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Steampunk; Young Adult & Teen; England; Historical Fiction.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    Modo hasn’t had an easy life so far.  Very few hunchbacks do.  Especially when they have a hideous face to go along with the grotesquely bent spinal column.

 

    Modo is presently doing what most hunchbacks do: he’s in a cage in a traveling freak show called “Merveilles et Mort”.  This is in 19^th century England, when there’s no such thing as child labor laws.  Modo is one year old.

 

    Right now, there’s a gentleman right outside Modo’s cage, staring at him, and offering good money to buy Modo from the show’s proprietor.   How odd.  But there’s method to the gentleman’s madness.  He’s heard that the boy-hunchback has a secret talent.

 

    He’s been told that Modo is a shape-shifter.

 

What’s To Like...

    Mission Clockwork is set in Victorian-era London, primarily in the poorer, darker neighborhoods, and both aboveground, including the rooftops, and underground, especially the sewers.  One of my recent reads, Terry Pratchett’s Dodger, was set in the same time and place, and it was fun to revisit it.

 

    It’s not a spoiler to reveal why Modo’s new owner, Mr. Socrates, bought him.  Socrates runs a British intelligence agency, and sees a huge potential in anyone who can self-rearrange his facial and body characteristics.  Modo is content; he has a personal combat trainer named Tharpa, and a kindly caretaker, Mrs. Finchley, both at Mr. Socrates' expense.  It’s a much better life than being locked in a cage with people gawking at you.

 

    The first task assigned by Socrates to Modo is to infiltrate a secret group of terrorists that is rumored to be plotting some sort of spectacular destruction in London in the near future.  Efforts to infiltrate the group thus far have been fruitless, but perhaps a shape-shifter can succeed.  Now, after years of training and upbringing, the teenaged Modo is ready to go out and do some official reconnaissance work.  There is, of course, some risk to his life, but hey, such sacrifices are occasionally necessary for Queen and Country.

 

    I liked that Modo’s special talent, while unique, also has limitations.  Yes, he can transform himself into someone else just by studying them for a bit.  And yes, it feels good to not have that ugly face and uncomfortably large growth on his back for a change.  But the transformation wears off after a short while, usually in a matter of hours, so Modo is always under a time constraint when using it.

 

    The ending is both spectacular and exciting.  It's a bit over-the-top, but that's standard fare in a “YA-ish” tale.  The main storyline is resolved, evil plans are thwarted, and Modo experiences his finest hour.  Mission Clockwork is both a standalone novel, and the first book in a series.  There is an short excerpt from Book 2, Mission Clockwork: The Dark Deeps, to close things out.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Knacker (n.) : someone who buys up old horses, then kills them for their meat, bones, and/or leather.

Others: Costermongers (n., plural).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.2/5 based on 269 ratings and 84 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.63/5 based on 3,574 ratings and 459 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    When Octavia had been a child in the orphanage, she had often dreamed a man would come to rescue her.  He would say, “I‘m your father and my ship was wrecked.  That is why you are here in the orphanage.  Now I can take you home.”  Or he would be a rich uncle.  As she grew older, she hoped it would be a young prince, and she pictured him so frequently that she could actually see his face.  In the end no one came, so one day she left on her own and began her life as a pickpocket.  (loc. 988)

 

    “I can read.”

    “Well, congratulations, Modo.”  She floated over and grabbed the book from his hands.  “Ah, Hamlet.  He’s too much of a gabber, that boy.  Wouldn’t survive a second in our world.”

    “It’s Shakespeare!”  He raised a hand as though on the stage.  “‘O, that this too too solid flesh would melt/Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!’  See!  It’s marvellous!”

    “Marvellously boring.  Though there is a good sword fight at the end.”  (loc. 1983)

 

Kindle Details…

    Mission Clockwork is usually priced at $2.99 at Amazon, although today and for a very limited time it is free!  The other three books in the series normally go for $2.99 (Book 2), or $3.99 (Books 3 and 4), and right now they too are discounted to $0.99 apiece, so I snapped them up.  This appears to be a completed series, but the author also has a more-recent 5-book YA fantasy series for you in e-book format titled the Dragon Assassin.

 

“I nodded off and fell into a story.”  (loc. 195)

    The nitpicking about Mission Clockwork is minor.  This is a “Teen and Young Adult” book, so I didn’t note any cusswords or adult situations cropping up.  You’d think that would make it a boring read for me, since I’m much older than the target audience, but that wasn’t the case at all.

 

    The book is written in Canadian, which is logical since the author grew up in Saskatchewan.  Therefore you occasionally run into weird spellings such as favourite, and greying, but at least worlds like judgments and recognized are spelled in “Yankee” fashion.  I spotted a couple of typos, such as Her/He, and wolf like/wolflike, plus one uncapitalized first word in a sentence: humour.  Overall though, I thought the editing was done well.

 

    Consistent with its target audience being Teen-&-Young-Adult, the storyline contains lots of action, with very little blood and gore, despite a couple of fatalities occurring along the way.  Yet it still entertained me from beginning to end, and I'm way out of the target age bracket.

    So if you’re looking for a kewl Steampunk adventure, set in a fascinating historical time period, loaded with thrills, intrigue, and having a hunchback shape-shifter for a protagonist, Mission Clockwork will be a perfect match for you.  Regardless of your age.

 

    8½ Stars.  We should not neglect to mention the story’s costar, young Octavia Milkweed, who is also one of Mr. Socrates’ agents.  She and Modo start off on the wrong foot, then spend a lot of time learning to work together, and more importantly, trust one another.  It all works out, of course, and I'm fairly certain  (is that an oxymoron?) that Octavia is going to become a recurring character.  But will she also be the catalyst for this series developing a Coming-of-Age plotline?  Who knows, but stay tuned.

Death By Disputation - Anna Castle

   2014; 360 pages.  Book 2 (out of 8) in the “A Francis Bacon Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Historical Fiction; England; Historical Mystery.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    Thomas Clarady is going to college!  He’s enrolled at that prestigious institution, Cambridge University!

 

    Well, actually, Thomas is attending Corpus Christi College, one of a number of colleges that comprise Cambridge.  And studying to get a degree is not the main reason he’s there, he’s been commissioned by Sir Francis Bacon to do some spying.  Corpus Christi College is a hotbed for members of the Puritan sect, and it is rumored that a secret group is being organized there, plotting sedition against the English Crown.  The Crown wants to know whether that's true, and if so, who the leader is.

 

    Thomas’s job is to keep his ears and eyes open and report back to Francis anything he overhears that smacks of potential rebellion.  That might sound exciting, but Thomas hasn’t heard anything even a bit suspicious yet.  Frankly, he’s bored.

 

    But then his tutor, Bartholomew Leeds, is found hanging, dead as a doornail, from the rafters in the room where Tom does his studying.  He isn’t bored anymore.

 

What’s To Like...

    Death By Disputation is the second book in Anna Castle’s Francis Bacon historical mystery series.  I read Book One, Murder By Misrule, a couple years ago and was quite impressed.  Its review is here.  This time around, Bacon’s protégé, Thomas Clarady, is the main protagonist, with Francis cast in a supporting role as Tom’s mentor.

 

    I love the historical fiction aspect of this series.  Death By Disputation is set in 1587 London, and the famous playwright, Christopher Marlowe, also has a major part in the tale.  Interestingly, Wikipedia confirms that both Bacon and Marlowe were at Corpus Christi College around this time.  Tensions between the Anglican church and the upstart Puritan movement are running high, and this religious angle plays a major role in the storyline.

 

    The mystery aspect is also done well.  The “was it suicide or murder” question is solved fairly quickly, but Tom then struggles to make further headway. Marlowe pursues his investigation, and at one point each protagonist suspects the other of murdering Leeds.  When Trumpet, a recurring character from Book One, gets involved, things get really complicated.

 

    I liked the attention Anna Castle pays to historical details.  At one point Thomas is shown an exciting new invention: a wood-encased writing implement that its creator calls a “pencil”.  A number of “archaic” English expressions are used in the dialogue, some examples of which are listed below.  There’s a "Historical Notes” section included in the back of the book which I found fascinating.  Anna Castle also seasons the tale with a bit of romance (after all, Tom is a handsome fellow) and humor (will “Eggy” ever remember Tom’s last name correctly?) which makes the story even more interesting.

 

    Things close with all the plot threads getting successfully tied up.  Leeds’ death is solved, the question of possible sedition within the Puritan movement is resolved, and Tom comes to grips (at least for now) with his feelings of passion.  I wouldn’t call the ending particularly exciting, but it is both appropriate and heartwarming.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Cozener (n.) : a dishonest person who uses clever means to cheat others out of something of value.

Others: Brabble (n.); Nidget (n.); Dizzard (n.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.3*/5, based on 846 ratings and 118 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.08*/5, based on 621 ratings and 78 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Am I that obvious?”  He tried for nonchalance, but his voice sounded plaintive to his own ears.

    “No.”  Marlowe chuckled softly as Tom exhaled a sigh of relief.  “I happen to be interested in religious politics.  My uncle, partly, but also for my own reasons.  Theatrical reasons.”

    “Whose side are you on, Kit?”

    “Side?  A playwright doesn’t take sides.  He creates both heroes and villains.  His job is to present them both and let the audience choose.”

    “That’s not a good enough answer,” Tom said.

    “It’s the best you’re going to get.”  (loc. 1888)

 

    She smiled a virtuous smile, batting her thick black lashes at him.

    Tom knew she was lying through her pearly teeth.  She’d undoubtedly rifled through everything he owned: clothes, books, bedding, the secret drawer at the bottom of his writing desk.  The worst of it was he hadn’t noticed a thing out of place.  He popped another almond into his mouth and chewed it with deliberate care, showing her his teeth.

    She stuck her tongue out at him, the unrepentant little minx.  (loc. 4115)

 

Kindle Details…

    Right now, Death By Disputation goes for just $0.99 at Amazon.  The rest of the books in the series cost anywhere from *free* (Book 1) to $4.99 (Book 8).  Anna Castle has two other series (The Professor & Mrs. Moriarty and A Cunning Mystery) and a number of short stories for your reading pleasure.  The books in those series are priced at $4.99 and $2.99 respectively; the short stories cost $0.99 apiece.

 

“My father likes to be a little late.  It’s the best way to avoid being early.”  (loc. 2105)

    I couldn't find much to quibble about in Death By Disputation.  Cussing is sparse (just 4 instances in the first 33% of the book), which speaks well of Anna Castle’s writing ability.  There are a couple of rolls-in-the-hay, and some gay relationships are alluded to, but that’s all historically accurate.

 

    The sleuthing element is not really a whodunit.  It’s not so much a matter of putting the clues together to suss out the perpetrator as it is for Tom (and the reader) to be alert for the key clue when it appears.

 

    Several reviewers felt that there was too much focus on the religious aspect.  They have a point, but only if you’re reading Death By Disputation solely for its mystery aspect.  The reality of 16^th-century England is that religion dominated every part of one’s daily life, and to ignore that would really compromise the historical accuracy.

 

    Personally, I found Death By Disputation to be a great follow-up to Murder By Misrule.  The mystery kept my interest, the historical setting was fantastic, and there were enough action-&-intrigue and witty dialogue to keep me reading “just one more chapter” night after night.

 

    8½ Stars.  One small sidelight into Puritan customs of the day.  Parson Wingfield is a fiery preacher who believes his children’s names should reflect Biblical attributes.  For better or worse.  His eight kids were christened Abstinence, Tribulation, Obedient, Resolved, Diligence, Steadfast, Prudence, and Humility.  Thank goodness my parents weren't Puritans.

Murder in the Queen's Armes - Aaron Elkins

   1985; 260 pages.  Book 3 (out of 18) in the “Gideon Oliver Mysteries” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : International Mystery & Crime; England; Whodunit; Forensic Anthropology.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Hooray!  Gideon and Julie are newlyweds!  It’s time for their honeymoon!

 

    And a mighty fine honeymoon it’s going to be for the American couple.  They’re heading for a beautiful part of Great Britain called Dorset.  Right on the scenic coast of the English Channel.  How delightfully romantic!

 

    There will be two little side-trips for Gideon.   First, a trip to the Greater Dorchester Museum of History to see a skull fragment affectionately called “Pummy”.  Then to a nearby archaeological site, where a former classmate of Gideon’s, Dr. Nate Marcus, is supervising an excavation.  Both visits will be short; neither one is anything major.

 

    Well actually, Nate claims he is onto something major.  He says he’s uncovered proof that the ancient Mycenaeans visited early Britain and ushered the locals into the Bronze Age!

 

    Ho hum.  I guess you’d have to be a fellow archaeologist to get excited about that, and Gideon’s an anthropologist.  I certainly can't see that any of this is worth killing somebody over, right?

 

What’s To Like...

    Murder in the Queen’s Armes is the third book in this 18-volume series, and the second one I’ve read and which is reviewed here.  The title references the inn where Gideon and Julie are staying.  As expected, complications quickly arise that intrude into the couple’s honeymoon, including several mysteries that have need of Gideon’s technical expertise as the renowned “skeleton detective”.

 

    I thought the mysteries in the storyline were well-crafted.  To give details would entail spoilers, but let’s just say that neither Gideon nor the reader should discard any discovery, no matter how minor it may seem at the time.

 

    I loved the setting: a picturesque area along the southern coast of England.  I have a Facebook friend who lives nearby, and she’s posted pictures of Dorset in bloom.  I want to go there!

 

    The technical aspect of the story also fascinated me.  Gideon is called upon twice to do a skeletal analysis, and I was amazed at how much can be deduced from an ancient bone, no matter whether “ancient” means a couple millennia or a couple million years.  I was delighted that my favorite indigenous paleo-British group, the “Beaker People”, figure into the plotline, and enjoyed learning a number of Yiddish phrases, since one of the main characters was Jewish, such as doppes, nu, ungepotchket, farpotchket, and tzimiss.

 

    The ending is good, although the key break in the investigation doesn't happen until late in the story.  So even though this is a whodunit, and even though there are clues aplenty along the way, don’t be upset if you can’t solve the crime before Gideon does.  The fun comes with “connecting the dots” from a series of clues.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Oleaginously (adv.) : obsequiously; in an exaggerated and distastefully complimentary manner.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 1,134 ratings and 102 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.98*/5, based on 1,842 ratings and 112 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “I can’t say I find the Bronze Age all that fascinating myself.  Too recent.”

    “Seventeen hundred b.c. is recent?”

    “Sure, to an anthropologist.  Didn’t you ever hear what Agatha Christie said about being married to one?”

    “I didn’t know she was.”

    “Yes, a famous one: Max Mallowan.  She said it was wonderful—the older she got, the more interesting he found her.”  (loc. 272)

 

    “He was pretty well soused when I left him an hour ago.”

    “Nate?”

    “Yes, indeed.  He’s sleeping it off, I think.”

    Abe made a decisive little nod.  “When we’re finished here, I’ll go down and fix him up.  I’ll make him take a guggle-muggle.”

    “Come again?”

    “An old remedy.  You mix whiskey, hot tea, molasses, and raw eggs, and swallow it in one gulp.”

    Gideon made a face.  “It sounds terrible.”

    “That’s why you got to drink it one gulp.  You call it a guggle-muggle because that’s what it sounds like when it goes down: Guggle, muggle.  Believe me, by seven o’clock he’ll be fine.”  (loc. 2760)

 

Kindle Details…

    Murder in the Queen’s Armes sells for $7.99 right now at Amazon.  The other books in the series cost anywhere from $1.99 to $8.99.  There are also two "bundles", both priced at $16.99, one with Books 1-4, the other with Books 5-7.

 

“He’s glick and he’s slib, that’s all he is.”  (loc. 2576)

    There’s not much in Murder in the Queen’s Armes to whine about.  The cussing is moderate, 17 instances in the first 20%, but I didn’t feel that it was overused, and I don’t recall any f-bombs.  There is some romantic banter between our newlyweds, but nothing salacious.

 

    There were a couple of typos: be/he, chinthursting/chinthrusting, farfetched/far-fetched, and one (out of six) “house-keeping” variant of the correct “housekeeping”, but overall the editing was pretty clean.  There were also several instances unintended breaks in paragraphs, but I blame the Amazon conversion program for that, since I’ve seen that in other e-books.   More annoying were a couple of scene switches without any signal, although this too could be the Amazon program’s fault.

 

    Overall, I enjoyed Murder in the Queen’s Armes.  It was a fast-paced, quick, easy read.  I loved the setting, and all the genre components—mystery, archaeology, anthropology, intrigue, and even romance—were nicely blended.  I’ve got a couple more e-books from this series sitting on my Kindle, and I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy getting better acquainted with Gideon Oliver.

 

    8 Stars.  One last “Kewlest New Word” for your vocabulary enhancement: the aforementioned hangover cure called guggle-muggle.  I’d never heard of it, and thought at first it was something Aaron Elkins made up.  But Wikipedia has a post about a milder variation of it, a dessert, and with several variant spellings including gogle-mogle, gogol-mogol, and kogel mogel.  Wiki it.  It is not likely to be added to my dessert list anytime soon.