The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin

I so enjoyed Mistress of the Art of Death that I had to reread the next two books in this series. And wouldn't you know it, they were just as wonderful the second time around!


“Fair Rosamund”, Henry II’s mistress, has died a painful death from poison, and his estranged wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine is the prime suspect. Fearing that Rosamund’s death is the first move by Eleanor to usurp his power, he summons Adelia Agular from her retreat in the fens of England to learn the truth. Not at all happy to be summoned, Adelia has no choice but to leave the country, and with her infant daughter Allie, and friends Gyltha and Mansur, goes to meet with the King, and Rowley Picot, the Bishop of St. Albans and the father of her child. Adelia and Rowley travel to the murdered courtesan’s home, a tower within a walled labyrinth known as The Serpent’s Tale. Its courtyard is littered with odd implements. Inside one of the rooms, they make a grisly discovery. But soon after they arrive, so does Eleanor of Aquitaine with her retinue. Rowley and Adelia are taken captive and rowed by boat to Oxford. On the trip, Rowley jumps overboard, and Adelia is certain he has either drowned or frozen to death. Trapped in the nunnery of Godstow, where Eleanor is staying until her rebellion begins, she suspects there is more than one killer, but cannot prove anything as the extreme snow and cold keep them inside. But she must find who the killers are before Eleanor launches her attack against Henry and plunges England into civil war. Full of great historical detail, and featuring a fearless woman ahead of her time.

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

Every reader has a favorite time and place that they most enjoy reading about, and my favorite time is the Dark and Medieval Ages. Although the setting could be in any country, ancient England and France are far and away my favorite places. Must be something about wanting to be a princess when I was a little girl, you think? I enjoy strong women protagonists; a rarity of the time, so it was with great delight that I discovered Ariane Franklin's first novel, Mistress of the Art of Death, which follows an unusual woman with a forbidden skill. This is the first is a series about Adelia, the Mistress of the Art of Death.

An intelligent, mesmerizing novel that melds a forensic thriller with great historical detail. In Medieval Cambridge, four children have been sadistically murdered, their deaths blamed on the Jews. A worried King Henry II contacts the King of Sicily asking for their best doctor of death, and doesn’t exactly get what he asked for. Instead, he gets Adelia; a mistress of death; a doctor trained in Salerno, Italy, but still; a woman. However, she can discern, through careful examination of a body, how a person died. Problem is that women with medical skills were often seen as witches, so Adelia must deflect her doctoring talents onto a man; her traveling companion Mansur, a Moor. Her other companion is Simon, a Jew. Adelia’s skills, and the help of Ulf, a young but rough boy, his mother Glytha, and a tax collector named Sir Rowley Picot, lead them ever closer to the man responsible for the heinous killings, but then, too close. Simon is found drowned, Ulf is kidnapped, and Adelia must find him before he suffers the horrible fate of the other children. A great read that transports you back to the sounds, sights and smells of the early Plantagenet era with a vulnerable but spirited heroine.