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CLERK'S TALE, THE
by Margaret Frazer
Berkley Prime Crime, January 2002
312 pages
$22.95
ISBN: 0425183246


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

It's the winter of 1446 and Domina Elisabeth, the Prioress of St. Frideswide's convent, accompanied by Dame Frevisse, and some servants from their nunnery, are on a trip to visit Sister Ysobel, Elisabeth's cousin, who is dying of tuberculosis at St. Mary's. When they arrive, they find that a man had been found stabbed to death in an enclosed nunnery garden, and there was no room in the guest quarters for the visiting nuns because the widow and her entourage would be staying there. The nuns, with the permission of Domina Matilda, the prioress of St. Mary's accept the offer of Lady Agnes, a local resident to stay with her, across the road from the nunnery.

Simon Montfort, the dead man, had been Crowner and was acting as royal escheator at the time of his death. There were many people who disliked him, and even his widow doesn't seem too unhappy. Simon had angered many with his abrasive actions and grasping ways,in his former position and when he moved up in the Medieval pecking order, he was able to alienate even more people. The only person who seems to be somewhat disturbed by his death was the man who found him, his clerk Master Gruesby.

Master Christopher Montfort, the son of the dead man, is now crowner, and as such, is to hold the inquest into the death of his father. The inquest allows Frazer to introduce us to the rest of the cast of characters and set the possible reasons for the murder. Frevisse, with the help of a young stable boy, Master Gruesby and Master Christopher, investigates and tries to disentangle the political and financial strands thereby solving the mystery.

If you like books set in medieval England, then you might enjoy the Dame Frevisse series. The scholarship seems sound, the setting is vivid, and Frazer gives us some insight into the life of the religous of the time. If there is a weakness, it is that the main character is so strong that the others seem less than real.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, January 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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