Litsy

bibliothecarivs

Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess | Alison Weir

Random book from our personal library.

6 likes

bibliothecarivs

Private Life in the Fifteenth Century: Illustrated Letters of the Paston Family | Roger Virgoe

Random book from our personal library.

8 likes1 stack add

Mattsbookaday

The Bookseller's Tale: A totally gripping historical crime thriller | Ann Swinfen

pick

The Bookseller‘s Tale (Oxford Medieval Mysteries 1), by Ann Swinfen (2016)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: In an Oxford deeply divided between town and gown, and still recovering from the Black Death, a bookseller discovers the body of a student in the river and takes it upon himself to ensure justice is done.

Review: Overall, this was a satisfying amateur detective murder mystery, with a unique and fascinating setting and a strong set of characters. ⬇️

Mattsbookaday It lagged for me quite a bit in the middle half of the book, and there are some questionable, out-of-character choices in the back half that felt like obvious plot devices, but this did what it had to do and I‘ll read on in the series. 1w

9 likes1 comment

shanaqui

One Night in Hartswood | Emma Denny

pick

I was tempted to read vol 4 of MDZS but in the end I used my internetless evening to finish this off. Now just two books left to complete my November #BookSpinBingo.

This was okay. Fairly predictable, all in all, with the main characters both stupidly keeping secrets. A very light pick, maybe a so-so. I wasn't tempted to DNF but I won't read more in the series.

12 likes

bibliothecarivs

Ecclesiastical History of the English People; The Greater Chronicle; Bede's Letter to Egbert (Revised) | Bede

Halfway

11 likes

bookandbedandtea

Blood Royal: A True Tale of Crime and Detection in Medieval Paris | Eric Jager

pick

There is a lot of detail- approx 1/3 of the pages are footnotes- in this accounting of a 500 year old crime. It is well researched & I was impressed at how much documentation survives. It starts out by following the Provost of Paris who did some fine detective work w/i the technological limits of his time. We also get a fascinating look at French politics of the time- and there are unfortunate parallels to be drawn. Once the murder is solved the

bookandbedandtea book goes on to examine the repercussions of the murder as it leads to a civil war, which weakens French defenses and resources such that they cannot fend off the English king Henry V when he comes campaigning in France. He wins at Agincourt, despite the odds, and comes out ahead in the Hundred Years War, which the author posits may have turned out differently had not the Orleanists and the Burgundians been at each other's throats. 3w

25 likes1 comment