Face Down Under the Wych Elm
Kathy Lynn Emerson's series of Elizabethan mysteries featuring Susanna,  Lady Appleton, just keeps getting better. In this, her fifth outing, the widowed  Lady Appleton is enjoying the attentions of a new suitor when she learns that  Constance Crane, her late husband's mistress, and Crane's elderly cousin, a  former nun, have been jailed for the heinous crime of "bewitching" two men to  death. Showing more nobility than good sense, perhaps, Susannah puts the ill- will of the past behind her and vows to help the two imprisoned gentlewomen, who  will be executed if convicted.It's soon clear to Susanna, herself an herbalist of some renown, that the  victims died of poison, not witchcraft. With the help of her housekeeper, she  solves the crime and names the villain. No big surprises are in store for the  careful reader, but clues and solutions aren't the important thing about these  clever, well-researched novels. Emerson has a deft hand with the details of the  customs and costumes of the Elizabethan era, and brings history to life with a  light touch. Lady Appleton gets more interesting as she gets older, and her  autonomy and audacity will win the reader's heart.--Jane Adams