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THE PATHS OF THE AIR, by Alys Clare.
Cover copy: It is late autumn, 1196. A secretive stranger arrives at New Winnowlands and Sir Josse d'Acquin guesses that he is the servant of a returning Crusader. Josse allows him to stay in an outhouse, but after the sick man disappears one night he seeks the assistance of Abbess Helewise of Hawkenlye Abbey.
Then a merchant and his boy find a body beneath the trees of the forest fringe. The victim had been savaged. When three Knights Hospitallers arrive on the trail of a runaway monk, Josse realizes that his mysterious guest has brought with him danger and a terrible secret...
Gender of detective: female
For all the author boasts in an afterword of her research (my learnings, let me show you them), this is less medieval by an order of magnitude than the previous novel. This is mostly due to a heavy Wiccan/fantasy undertone: there are People of the Forest with clearly magical abilities who worship a goddess, who co-exist remarkably peacably with a Christian abbey, and quite a lot of 'POV character somehow knew X!' with implications of something higher test than just keen observation.
Meanwhile, there's a running counterpoint of scenes somehow involving a young Knight Hospitaller at a hostage exchange for a handsome young Arab, who had been a merchant's unwilling sodomite. (Which scenes amuse me, mostly because the subtext in them is so clear that later, when we meet the young Knight, there's a fair bit of NO REALLY THAT YOUNG ARAB HE WAS JUST A TOTAL JERK NOTHING THERE BETWEEN US AT ALL NOSIREE CAN'T IMAGINE WHY YOU MIGHT THINK THAT. See also: protest too much, methinks.
It does not suck. But I also have a much higher tolerance for pseudo-fantasy medieval than I do for gritty authentic medieval politics, so bear that in consideration.
*
Whoops. There was a book I meant to do an hour ago, and missed. Must double back and do that next.
Team Mariposa, Blogathon 2010. Sponsor me!
Cover copy: It is late autumn, 1196. A secretive stranger arrives at New Winnowlands and Sir Josse d'Acquin guesses that he is the servant of a returning Crusader. Josse allows him to stay in an outhouse, but after the sick man disappears one night he seeks the assistance of Abbess Helewise of Hawkenlye Abbey.
Then a merchant and his boy find a body beneath the trees of the forest fringe. The victim had been savaged. When three Knights Hospitallers arrive on the trail of a runaway monk, Josse realizes that his mysterious guest has brought with him danger and a terrible secret...
Gender of detective: female
For all the author boasts in an afterword of her research (my learnings, let me show you them), this is less medieval by an order of magnitude than the previous novel. This is mostly due to a heavy Wiccan/fantasy undertone: there are People of the Forest with clearly magical abilities who worship a goddess, who co-exist remarkably peacably with a Christian abbey, and quite a lot of 'POV character somehow knew X!' with implications of something higher test than just keen observation.
Meanwhile, there's a running counterpoint of scenes somehow involving a young Knight Hospitaller at a hostage exchange for a handsome young Arab, who had been a merchant's unwilling sodomite. (Which scenes amuse me, mostly because the subtext in them is so clear that later, when we meet the young Knight, there's a fair bit of NO REALLY THAT YOUNG ARAB HE WAS JUST A TOTAL JERK NOTHING THERE BETWEEN US AT ALL NOSIREE CAN'T IMAGINE WHY YOU MIGHT THINK THAT. See also: protest too much, methinks.
It does not suck. But I also have a much higher tolerance for pseudo-fantasy medieval than I do for gritty authentic medieval politics, so bear that in consideration.
*
Whoops. There was a book I meant to do an hour ago, and missed. Must double back and do that next.
Team Mariposa, Blogathon 2010. Sponsor me!