These books are so great! Can't wait to get my hands on the next one. ( )

Just ok. Plot a bit too convoluted. Good atmosphere. May try the next one. ( )

From the jacket: "It is 1385. and a young woman who has witnessed a terrible crime turns to Abbess Hildegard for protection just as the mystery plays are about to unfold in York. No one is safe-even the innocent, dear young woman-from a series of murders that seem to revolve around a craftsman working on a stunning stained glass window, but Hildegard has never been one to turn away from danger in her quest for justice and mercy."

Hmmmmm that barely describes the book....... But there was so much going on and at first, I was so confused by all of it, that for the first five chapters I didn't even know what I was reading.

Abbess Hildegard runs a chapter house out in the middle of nowhere..... Her mother Superior sends her two young girls to house/protect. Some really bad men come out of nowhere and upturn the chapter house looking for one of the girls (neither very likeable, one much more awful than the other).... The really bad men set fire to the house & out buildings and destroy the entire garden......

Hildegard then takes the girls to York for protection along with a very valuable, much sought after, & sacred relic...... In York all sorts of things happen: the Abbey they stay in is evil and tries to keep the girls as their prisoners, the relic is stolen, a woman is kidnapped, fires are set..... there are murders.

One very unbelievable thing after another happens to Hildegard...... All the violence and how she survives it is nothing less than a miracle..... I'm thinking she is no mere Abbess, but she must be an Angel sent down in human form to figure out great mysteries.

Anyway, I didn't really care for the book, it was very violent and difficult to follow who everyone was & what everyone was doing... It was about 17 chapters too long (there were 37 Epilogue) and I really didn't like the characters, they were shallow & flat.

But there was a bit of the history of John of Gaunt & King Stephen...... ( )

The third in a series of mysteries set in Medieval England, this book follows the adventures of Abbess Hildegard, a young widow turned nun. She’s settled into a peaceful life in the country with a couple of nuns, raising bees and growing their food. This peace is ruined when two young girls on the run arrive, followed closely by marauding knights who set fire to the buildings. They all set off on foot for the great northern city of York.

The book is set in a turbulent era of England’s history. John of Gaunt threatens his nephew’s throne; the Wycliff bible has been published and is being suppressed; some theologians are questioning whether the host really turns into the body of Christ at mass; a long drought is creating hunger and stress. York is packed with people arriving for the celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi. And of course, families are having personal problems. Hildegard must protect her two young charges- and figure out why one is wanted so badly and who is doing the wanting. And now a precious relic has been stolen. These strands all weave together through the novel.

It’s odd; things never stop happening in this book, but it seemed very slow. Despite all the action and puzzles, I got bored. I loved the way the author put historical details in; one really gets a sense of the period and place. The characters are fairly well done, but I didn’t really care very much about any of them- possibly because there are so many characters that you don’t really get to spend much time with any one of them except for Hildegard. A few are so unimportant that I’m not sure why they were put in.

The book is good but not great. It kept me reading, but there were definitely times when I saw how far I had still to go to finish it and groaned. ( )

One of my all-time favorite type of books--murder mystery set in the middle ages and involving monastics. This book doesn't disappoint. ( )