A Plague of Poison (Templar Knight Mysteries, No. 3)

#3 Bascot de Marins "Templar Knight" historical mystery set in 1201, Lincoln UK. Bascot, attempting to make a decision as to whether or not he should leave the Templars and accept King John's offer to have his father's lands restored to him and allow him to name an heir. He worries that his ward, Gianni, a ragamuffin that he rescued from a life of poverty on the streets, will end up back where he came from if he were to go back to his Templar brothers rather than leave the order and remain one of Nicolaa de la Haye's retainers. He's distracted from thinking about his choices, however, when a rash of poisonings plague Lincoln, with several deaths both in castle and town, apparently through honey laced with a deadly herb that lead to a quick and violent death. Near-panic begins to take the townsfolk, with people suspicious of everyone around them. Lady Nicolaa places the castle cooks under orders to serve only plain, unspiced foods, and charges Bascot with finding the vile murderer. His first task is to determine the motive of the killer, and to do that, he must try to figure out if the actual victims were the intended victims. I like this series and am beginning to like Bascot more each book, but one thing I have found is that there are too many peripheral characters, such that when the killer was revealed, I barely remembered who they were. While not a wholly satisfying book, I'll definitely read on--a great sense of time and place and interesting major characters overshadow the meandering investigation.

Maureen Ash has continued her interesting series of Templar mysteries. The characterizations are deep enough to inspire caring and the story is compelling. I'm already waiting for the next one.

"'Sweet Jesu, it was terrible. The man and his wife covered in vomit, their eyes open and staring as though they had witnessed the depths of hell, and the little girl ...La pauvre petite, she was curled up at her mother's side clutching at the arm of her maman, as though beseeching the poor woman to save her...Only a man without a soul would willingly cause the death of such an innocent." (page 53, @2009 Berkeley Prime Crime, New York) As spring approaches full flower in the medieval town of Lincoln a serial killer arrives. Dormant plans seeded by rage have now come to fruition in the warm sun and soft rains of April. Both castle and town are horrorstruck as seemingly unconnected individuals die savagely, victims of a stealthy poisoner. From castellan to merchant, many citizens look constantly over their shoulders, fearful it was they who were intended as victim. Others under suspicion face the loss of their livelihoods and risk violent reprisal from incensed townspeople. The sadistic murderer, sufficiently bold and knowledgable, is himself victimized by a curious ill luck. Through the typical waywardness of human behavior he sometimes misses his intended victim. In order to reach his correct victim the murderer is forced to continue his attacks and thereby risk showing more of his hand with every murder. Can he outsmart an entire town, including the man given to the task of detection, worldly wise and intuitive Knight's Templar Bascot de Marins? Or will the merciless killer be brought to justice and meet his own unnatural end, swinging from rope and scaffold? Familiar characters continue to develop and reveal more of themselves to the reader which makes up for a somewhat slow start as the author completes the necessary retelling of the backstory. New characters are also introduced and several interesting pairings both illuminate and deflect de Marins quest for the truth. The quirky ratcatcher cousins, the brooding Severtsson brothers and the impulsive Rivelar sons all explore the various nature of familial loyalty and love, the very things that detective de Marins comes to decide are at the heart of the mystery. Once past the very unsettling murders the story returns to the comfortable distance mystery readers expect and we can once again engage in the enjoyable intellectual exercise of pondering motivation and method. The identity of the murderer is truly a surprise and my only complaint being that I would have liked to see more of that character in the incognito impersonation, not just in psychotic asides. Often we mystery lovers so enjoy the puzzle that the victims become secondary to our concern; contrivances created for the enjoyment of our mental faculties. Although we the reader are let into the workings of the murderer's mind through anonymous asides, none of the killer's crazed rationalizations are as chilling as the death of the little girl. Unlike so many mysteries where characters are often characterless - paperboard figu