Heart of Ice

As usual, Alys Clare delivers a spellbinding mystery. Just starting this book will guarantee that nothing else gets done until after the last page! Don't think that Hawkenlye Abbey is cursed with a violent nun, though; the nursing sisters are still working to heal the sick and wounded. Clare's depiction of the medieval threat of disease and disaster -- as well as courage, faith, and love is heartwarming. This knowledgeable author warms the heart and cheers the spirit, instead of becoming mired in the filth, stench and violence too frequently depicted in many medieval mysteries. An excellent work! Marie L.

Alys Clare's novels are like a breath of fresh air. I love medieval murder mysteries and there are certainly a lot of them about (thank goodness), but the authors books breathe new life into the period and her will they won't they situation with Helewise and Sir Josse, holds the reader's attention as well. Don't be swayed into thinking that these books are written with the female reader in mind. They are for everybody, young and old, male or female. Alys Clare lives in Kent where the Hawkenlye mysteries are set. The year is 1194 and the winter weather is becoming increasingly bitter. A sick man is making is way to Hawkenlye Abbey where he hopes to obtain a cure for his illness by taking the Holy Water at the Abbey. In his delirium, the Virgin Mary appears before him, a miraculous sighting that is on a part with the sighting that led to the establishment of the Abbey. As the figure of a beautiful woman approaches the sick man he begins to pray, but she strikes him with a club and then rolls him into a ditch. It is only when the winter thaw begins that the corpse is discovered. Everything points to the sick man being from France, as he has papers on him and tha Abbess asks Sir Josse d'Aquin if he can decipher them. Meanwhile the two travellers who found the body fall ill and the sickness bears a strong resemblance to the plague . . .