Covenant with Hell: A Medieval Mystery (Medieval Mysteries)
Once again, Royal utilizes a religious pilgrimage as the perfect backdrop for an expertly wrought and detailed medieval mystery. Wherever Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas travel, murder and mayhem are certain to follow. After they arrive at the Holy Shrines of Walsingham, in East Anglica, a nun falls mysteriously to her death from the bell tower. Though there are whispers of both suicide and an improper relationship, Eleanor and Thomas dig deeper, exposing a tarnished priest and untwisting a treasonous plot to assassinate King Edward. Royal does her usual superb job of dovetailing both the religious and the political subtext bolstering her tautly strung narrative. This historically authentic series is definitely on a par with the best of Peter Tremayne and Ellis Peters. --Margaret Flanagan