A Shrine of Murders: Being the First of the Canterbury Tales of Kathryn Swinbrooke, Leech, and Physician

When I found out that C. L. Grace is yet another pseudonym of Paul Doherty you could have knocked me down with the proverbial feather. How one man can be so prolific in his writing is beyond me (or is there more than one writer?), who knows. What is even more astounding is that his books are all consistently good and written with the authority of someone who knows their subject back to front. It does not seem to matter to the author whether he is writing about medieval mystery (Hugh Corbett etc.), Ancient Egypt, Roman or Greek, the author always has a good tale to tell and the books are well researched down to the fine detail. Katherine Swinbrooke, the leading character in these novels is a practitioner of medicine, unusual in itself as most women prescribing cures and medicines would have been classed as a witch in the period that the books are written, i.e. 15th century.. Canterbury like many other places at the time is suffering because of the War of the Roses. Trade from the pilgrimages is also hit hard when a number of pilgrims are poisoned in strange circumstances. Suspecting that the murderer could well be someone with a knowledge of medicine the Archbishop call on Kathryn for help. Kathryn is aided in her search by her servant Thomasina and a powerful Irish mercenary called Colum Murtagh. As with all Doherty's books the story is both believable and interesting and hold the attention from beginning to end.