It's All About the Book

What other city in the world is as associated with masks as Venice? Venice, where the stones are soaked with blood and history, and people are never what they seem. In City of Masks, we are transported to 14th century Venice, specifically 1358 when Venice was besieged by the Hungarians and lawlessness and treachery abounded.

Oswald de Lacy, also known as Lord Somershill, is on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land when he and his mother are stuck at the home of John Bearpark, an English merchant living in Venice. De Lacy is running from something, and has clearly lost the will to live when first we meet. His problems are exacerbated by a new love of gambling, which leaves him broke and in debt to a nasty character. In the midst of his misery, he discovers the murdered remains of Enrico Bearpark, the merchant’s grandson. The elder Bearpark hires de Lacy to find the murderer, setting him on a quest that reveals as much about himself as about Venice and the people who live there.

This is a dense story, slightly reminiscent of Donna Leon’s contemporary Commissario Brunetti series in style, but filled with rich historical detail. Sykes brings 14th century Venice alive, from the stench of the sewage in the canals, to the island of lepers and the convent/brothel, to gilded palazzos. The action moves fairly slowly, but the story is captivating enough to keep you engaged. De Lacy is a troublesome character at first. It’s hard to find sympathy for him since we don’t know what has caused his melancholy (unless you’ve read the first two in the Lord Somershill series, which I hadn’t). However, as he begins his investigation and untangles a mess of clues and false trails, the clever, confident Lord reveals himself. Determined to find Enrico’s killer, de Lacy is unprepared for where the trail ultimately leads him.

The writing is quite good, with just enough scene descriptions to convey a sense of time, place, and atmosphere but not so much that the reader skims ahead. De Lacy’s relationships are most interesting here – with his mother, with Enrico, with Bearpark’s wife Filomena, and with his own past. Clearly de Lacy has lost his way; by the end of the story he has found his way back. I enjoyed this one enough that I will likely go back and read books 1 and 2, and will look for new entries in the series. Recommended for fans of historical mysteries.

Ever since I read The Deeper Song by Patricia Pfitsch I have been fascinated by the relatively unacknowledged influence of women on recorded history, especially that of the Bible. Combine that with my love of historical mysteries and old Ireland, and you’ll understand why I gravitated to The Gospel of Mary.

Second in a series about Sister Deirdre, The Gospel of Mary begins with a flurry as Deirdre comforts an old and dying nun from a faraway abbey who made her way to Deirdre on purpose to entrust her with a very special document. Deirdre, who specializes in books and scrolls, takes ownership of the fragile papyrus and promises to keep it safe. After translating the first line, she understands that she holds a previously unseen gospel written by Mary, the Mother of Jesus the Christ. Deirdre also immediately understands that men of the church will be looking for the document and will likely stop at nothing to get it. Realizing that her presence in the abbey puts everyone at risk, she travels to the stronghold of an old friend and former lover, who she trusts will keep her safe while she translates the document and tries to preserve it. What she doesn’t know is that a priest is already hunting her. As Deirdre struggles to know who to trust, she learns more about the woman who gave birth to a god and comes to understand that she must keep the document safe at all costs, leading up to a surprising ending.

Freeman is a Celtic scholar, and his knowledge of this historical era lends an authenticity to the story that is often missing in others like it. Stories about lost gospels are common, but Freeman has taken an old trope and transported it back in time, when people lived and died by the sword, and no one was safe from betrayal. He has created a smart, gutsy, brave character in Sister Deirdre who is confident in herself and in her faith. Freeman paints a vivid picture of an Ireland teetering between the old religion and new Christianity, and lends authority to the characters who live with a foot in each world.

While I have not read the first in this series, I plan to go back and do so, then will look forward to the next. Recommended for lovers of historical mysteries.

Murder mysteries that take place in 19th and early 20th century England are some of my favorites, so when I saw this one available on NetGalley, I thought I’d give it a shot. I didn’t realize it is #23 in the William Monk series by Anne Perry, although I do recall having read one or two of the earlier entries, and have read Perry’s Thomas Pitt series.

There are Readers out there who, for a number of reasons, will absolutely not read a series out of order.

I am not one of them.

For me, a *good* series is successful often because of the meticulous world-building the author performs, but a *great* series is written in a way that you can dip in and out of the author’s world. That is what I found here, with Commander William Monk, his wife Hester, and “son” Will. Perry provides just enough detail about past history of the characters as is necessary for *this* story. She doesn’t give away plot lines of earlier stories, so I can go back and read those without knowing how they end. The plot is the key, the characters’ past is incidental.

Perry offers an interesting plot in Echo of Murder. Monk is called to investigate an horrific crime committed against a member of the Hungarian community. It is violent, the product of extreme rage. At the same time, Will (also known as Scuff), meets an old friend of Hester’s, a surgeon with whom she served in the Crimean War and who is now suffering from what today we would call a severe case of PTSD. As Monk conducts his investigation into the murder and moves deep into the Hungarian community, his path crosses with Will’s and Fitz, the Crimean surgeon, neatly braiding their stories together into a clever and neat climax.

Perry’s writing is top notch, as always. I did feel as though she used the xenophobia directed at the Hungarians as a bit of a soapbox regarding immigration, and I found the end to be rushed, but otherwise this is a solid entry into a much loved series that makes me want to go back and read the earlier Monk books. Recommended.