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It is the spring of 1272 and the Prioress Eleanor is recovering from a life-threatening ailment. She has returned to Amesbury Priory in order to visit her aunt and honor one of the religious celebrations. This visit is supposed to allow Eleanor to recapture her strength and escape the demands of her office. Unfortunately, life at the Priory is not necessarily peaceful. Many claim that a ghost haunts the area and threatens the village community. Eleanor knows that this is not the truth but is uncertain of how to prove it. At the request of her aunt, Eleanor and Brother Thomas begin investigating the rumors of the ghost and its possible sightings. Then someone is murdered and the ghost blamed. Eleanor and Thomas must solve the murder before the community can become even more frightened. Their investigation leads them down unexpected paths as they deal with theft, religious and personal strife, a determined bride-to-be and additional murders. Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas must catch the killer before more people are harmed or an innocent person is blamed for the crime spree. JUSTICE FOR THE DAMNED is a slow-moving mystery. Many historical mysteries tend to move slower than modern mysteries and thrillers. It is as though the pace of a historical mystery needs to move stately and leisurely in order to reflect that the fact that it is historical – that history is dull and slow so historical novels must be the same as well. I do not find history or historical novels dull but it is the stereotype and it seems as though some authors are attempting to meet this negative stereotype. To some extent this book lives up to that. I enjoy historical mysteries, as it is interesting to see how authors view the distant past. Like many historical mystery series, JUSTICE FOR THE DAMNED takes place in a religious community. In the 1200s, the Church is one of the few organizations which the general populace would be familiar with and would expected to interact with on a daily basis. The Church community has the ability to cut across society boundaries as well as have some leisure time in their day. For this reason, the idea that nuns, monks and other religious figures would investigate certain criminal events in a village is realistic and logical. I will admit that on occasion the religious life and rituals can get aggravating as modern life is not as constrained. In well-written mysteries, there are enough other things happening to counteract the monotony of the Church rites. In JUSTICE FOR THE DAMNED, a lot of attention is made to the religious hours as they provide the explanation behind the murders and the community's response to the crimes.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, February 2007
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