Review: but I enjoyed the author's notes the most
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 8, 2014
This is a well-mannered tale of treachery in a religious setting in the 13th century. We have no record of the speech of "everyday" people of that time. The characters in this book are remarkably well-spoken, calm and reasonable (excepting when drunk one presumes) but there's a real murder mystery here to solve. There's also a real sense of place and time and conventions of the day.  The description of life in an abbey, and in a town closely associated with religious houses seems grounded in serious research and I enjoyed Royal's notes at the end of the book as much as I did the story.