A Shrine of Murders: Being the First of the Canterbury Tales of Kathryn Swinbrooke, Leech, and Physician
The unsettling, seemingly anachronistic figure of a serial killer haunts this otherwise convincing recreation of 15th-century Canterbury written under a pseudonym by P. C. Doherty ( The Masked Man and The Fate of Princes ). Kathryn Swinbrooke is an independent practitioner of medicine, discovering the benefits of an apple-rich diet for teeth, and prescribing herbs and vinegar for almost every known malady. Canterbury's tourist trade, already jeopardized by the War of the Roses, is further imperiled by a spate of poisoned pilgrims, each corpse accompanied by the appearance of a line or two of rough verse, in style remarkably similar to Geoffrey Chaucer's soon-to-be famous work. Suspecting the murderer is a doctor, the Archbishop asks for Kathryn's help. In a fascinating hunt that pits her against the august town physicians, Kathryn is aided only by her wits, her foul-mouthed, warmhearted servant Thomasina, and Colum Murtagh, a powerful Irish mercenary. While successfully demythologizing the period and people, the author offers thoughtful insights into such modern concerns as wife-beating and feminism.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.