"An excellent medieval mystery!"

This is the first book by Roberta Gellis that I've read and I must say it won't be my last. I was well and truly hooked by the time I had finished the first chapter.

Magdalene De Batarde is the resident Madame at the Old Priory Guesthouse. One of her girls, Sabina was taken to be a leman for Master Mainard, a successful saddler. Then when Mainard's horrible wife, Bertrild is murdered and left in the shop's yard, fingers seem to point to Mainard, Sabina or Mainard's journeyman.

Magdalene will not stand idly by and let Sabina be charged with the murder so she decides to investigate this murder on her own with the help of Sir Bellamy of Itchen or Bell as he is called. As they investigate, they find more and more intriguing facts about this case and the most intriguing of all are all the suspects in this murder. Now it's up to Magdalene and Bell to try to sift through all the evidence to figure out just what happened and who was nasty enough to shut Bertrild up forever.

I was intrigued with this most interesting book as the story unfolded. I have several of Roberta Gellis' books in my to-be-read pile and I will most certainly be digging them out and reading them in short order.

Reviewed by Kathy Boswell
Posted September 23, 2001