Burgundian's Tale

Kate Sedley's books about Roger Chapman, the pedlar come murder mystery sleuth are becoming more and more popular and rightly so. They are good entertaining reading with plots and backgrounds that have been well thought out and well researched. They are what I would call light reading (very much like the writing style of Paul Doherty or Bernard Knight, two other well known authors of medieval mysteries). Roger the Chapman has been at home in Bristol too long. His fourth child has died shortly after being born and his wife Adela believes that Roger has not been particularly upset by this sad event. If truth be told he is in fact somewhat relieved at having one less mouth to feed, but this does not make him feel any less guilty for having those thoughts. Because of the friction between them, Roger thinks a few weeks on the road selling his wares will help to heal the rift. No sooner has he made his mind up to go on the road he receives a message from Richard, Duke of Gloucester, a man he has worked for before, asking him to travel to London to solve the mystery of a murdered foreigner, a Burgundian. The murdered young man is the son of one of the ladies-in-waiting to Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy. A request from the Duke of Gloucester is tantamount to an order from anyone else and Roger has no option but to go to the crowded streets of London, where a surprising number of the people he questions appear to have a motive for doing away with the murdered man, Fulk Quantrell

As the capricious English spring vacillates between cold dreary rains and idyllic sunshine, Bristol peddler Roger the Chapman decides to make a quick trip to London to sell his wares and escape from his perceived domestic troubles. The trials of feeding three children and the recent death of his new baby daughter drives ROger to seek the peace of the road for a short while. Not long after his arrival in London, though, the Duke of Gloucester again commands Roger to investigate a London murder that touches a member of the royal household. The victim, Fulk Quantrell, is the handsome nephew of London matron Judith St. Clair. Fulk had recently returned to London after living in the court of Burgundy, where his mother, Judith St. Clair's twin sister, was a favorite servant to Duchess Margaret of Burgundy. The mystery is set amid the excitement of Duchess Margaret's ceremonial return visit to London. The mystery unfolds quickly, and auther Sedley does a superb job of combining every day life in 1480 London with the development of the mystery. One of the charming aspects of the mystery series is the relationship between the common peddler Roger Chapman and his royal friend the Duke of Gloucester. Also, author Sedley skilfully weaves in events from English history right into the story. Whether this is your first meeting with Roger the Chapman or you an old friend of the series, I highly recommend this entertaining historical mystery.

Another can't put it down, fast paced mystery that should win Sedley new fans. If you are not already a Roger fan, I suggest you stop reading this and read "Tregatt"s review. (The series is best read in order, however, start with DEATH AND THE CHAPMAN) If you are a fan I suggest you stop reading until you've read the book. I'm not going to give away the plot, but you may want to enoy the book first before you read further. The problem is: Is this the same, the real, our old Kate Sedley? Suddenly, instead of long, ponderous (but beautifully descriptive) sentences we have short, more precise ones (if a little minimalistic). We are reading much better plotted and organized mysteries. Not that I miss the old "Come on, hurry up and figure it out, and lets get on with it, we readers have figured it out ages ago," Roger. But I do miss some of the flavor of those earlier books. I don't know if the changes are due to: a much more demanding editor, a ghost co-writer, or what. I do realize that there are a few books which, if I had started the series with them, would have been the last I read. Yet in these new, better mystery Roger books some of the what Martin Heiddegger called "the world worlding" that brought the 15th Century to life in a closeup, touchable form, is gone. Also gone is that magical sense of the religious that was so carefully cultivated in the earlier books. There was a little bit of that magic in this one, in that he did dream about the answer to the mystery, but I used to like the way Roger brought God, and his past into the meld. There is also a sort of class conflict in this book that I think the old Kate would have handled better. The Duke treats him like a friend, the suspects like a lower class nusiance--I just think this could have been handled better. And lastly, and this is a spoiler, so you might not what to read on until you've read the book. Roger again does not get rewarded. In fact, he doesn't even work on getting new material for his pack except at the very beginning. In the past economics were always a conern. Why suddenly can Roger go home after a long trip not only penniless, but having to have paid for his apprentice's ale, and whatever. Now again, I like this book, I like Roger as a character, and if the books have to be better told mysteries to attact more readers, then so be it, but I would like more 15th Century meat on my bones, please.

Kate Sedley has penned yet another wonderfully page-turnning and riveting read with this latest Roger the chapman installment. One of my favourite mystery series, it's always a treat for me discover that there is a new Roger the chapman mystery for me to sit down and loose myself in, and "The Burgundian's Tale" lived up to my every expectation of an engaging and suspenseful read. Margaret, the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy and King Edward IV of England's younger sister, is in England for a visit. And London is bustling with excitement as the merchants and townspeople vigorously prepare for the influx of royalty, aristocrats, visiting Burgundians and their assorted retinues. In the midst of all this the murder of young man, Fulk Quantrell, would probably have gone unremarked by many, except that Fulk also happens to be the Dowager Duchess' favourite male attendant. And so Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, asks his trusted servant, Roger the chapman, to investigate Fulk's murder. Fulk, it turns out was the only son of Duchess Margaret's childhood companion and favourite seamtress-in-chief, Veronica Quantrell. Recently, however, Veronica had passed away, and Fulk had asked permission to come to England in order to acquaint his aunt, Judith, with her twin's death. Judith had married well and advantageously, and although she has several dependents that she had promised to make her heirs, all this goes out the window when she meets Fulk and falls for his charms. Could one of the displaced heirs have murdered Fulk out of anger and greed? Seemingly, this should be a rather simple case for Roger to sort out. Except that the more inquiries that Roger makes, the more opaque things become -- Fulk was not the sunny, charming youth his aunt or the Duchess claim him to be, and at the back of everything, is an impression that Roger is getting of something truly evil and sinister lurking, something that Roger senses he has to unveil. For Roger, the request to investigate Fulk's murder couldn't have come at a better time. Just recently, he and his wife, Adela, had suffered the loss of their newborn child. Roger's grief, however, was also tinged with relief because now there would be one less mouth to feed. And this feeling, which he was unsuccessful at hiding from Adela, has led to an estrangement between the couple. So that Roger was almost ready to go on one of his selling trips in order to put some distance between him and Adela when the Duke's summons came. But this new case, Roger senses, is not only perplexing, but also quite dangerous, and he will have to keep his wits about him if he is to come home to Adela whole of body and mind when it is all finished... I couldn't resist finishing "The Burgundian's Tale" in one sitting. It was swiftly paced, totally engaging and wholly suspenseful, and was written with such skill and command that time flew, pages turned and I had finished the book before I even knew it. And I had meant to savour this treat over a few d