The Traitor's Tale

This book is the strongest and best in an already strong series. Ms. Frazer's Dame Frevisse is a nun like none you will have ever encountered before. In fact, this book is so good, that anyone who loves historical fiction should read all the fifteen previous books in this series in order to fully understand and appreciate this one. Ms. Frazer's history knowledge is formidable, and it shows that she does countless hours of research before she writes a book. This book gives a really good picture of what happened in England to set the stage for the War of the Roses. Henry VI was certainly not a good king by any stretch of the imagination, but as to whether he was just weak and pious, or instead a wicked king that deliberately planned and abetted many people's murders is up to the reader to decide. Ms. Frazer sets the ground work for the reader to come to their own decision. Her characters, beside Dame Frevisse, are also very strong. The book is full of deceit, intrigue, political machinations and a good little mystery to boot. I highly recommend it, as well as the fifteen previous books in this series.

I gave this 5 stars, but almost gave it a 4. Not because of the book itself. As usual Margaret Frazer has done an excellent job of creating characters and telling a good tale. Dame Frivesse is one of my favorite literary figures, and when paired with Joliffe you can be sure the yarn is always a good one. I think my disappoint comes from all the politics involved. For people who enjoy a good political medieval mystery, its a marvelous tale. But for me...gosh, I'd like just a good old fashioned murder in a small English village, and leave the politics out. Having said that, I would still recommend The Traitor's Tale, along with all the other books in the series to anyone who wants a smashing good read on a cold winter's day.

Mystery authors with series amateur sleuths always face one problem -- how is it that your protagonist keeps getting involved in murders? Margaret Frazer has solved this problem neatly by having her smart and utterly sympathetic Dame Frevisse become embroiled, albeit totally unwillingly, in the political intrigue leading up to the War of the Roses. This book, like the others before it, is fascinating in not only giving a picture of life in the 15th century, but doing so with believable characters that manage to resonate with the current day reader without seeming anachronistic. There is much exposition in this book. Lots of mysteries bog down on the inevitable "it could have been done THIS way" dialogue, but Frazer not only makes the dialogue -- and the underlying history lesson! -- compelling but also entertaining in the exchange between those two fine minds, Frevisse and Joliffe. Frazer is truly a master of the craft, and Frevisse has become one of the great classic characters. Let's hope she and Joliffe share many more adventures!

In this most recent Sister Fervisse installment, author Margaret Frazer moves away from the traditional whodunit into the realm of political intrigue and assassination. As usual, Ms Frazer has taken real historical events and woven her own, very own personal web around it, that results in the very absorbing "A Traitor's Tale." In 1450, England seems to be teeming with plots and counter-plots and a populace angry at the manner in which the country is being run. For many, the honourable and capable Duke of York, is an answer to all prayers, and they live in the hope that the exiled nobleman will return to England and help their weak king, Henry VI, with the governance of the land. So that when it comes to the duke's attention that the late and unlamented Duke of Suffolk, may have left a letter listing those who had betrayed their King by conspiring with the French, he sends out his best spy, Simon Joliffe, to try and retrieve the letter. But when Joliffe starts trying to track down this letter, he discovers that those who may know something of this letter have all met with mysterious deaths. At the same time, the Duchess of Suffolk is herself anxious to retrieve this same letter in order to safeguard her son's future. Can the Duchess and Joliffe work together in order to find this letter and discover why the late Duke's men are being killed off one by one? It would seem as if they must; and fortunately for them, Dame Fervisse of St Frideswide, the Duchess' cousin and Joliffe's friend, who has come to the Duchess' side at her hour of need, is at hand to help them figure out who is behind these murders and why... Anyone who has been reading my reviews of Margaret Frazer's Dame Fervisse mysteries will already know how very much I like this series and that one of the things that I enjoy most about these mysteries is how vividly the author colours each plot with the pageantry and history (social, economic and political) of the period. All this and more -- a well written and suspenseful plot peopled with brilliantly realised character portrayals -- can be found in this latest Dame Fervisse installment, "The Traitor's Tale." But what I especially liked about this novel, other than that it featured the main protagonist from Margaret Frazer's other medieval series, the strolling actor, Joliffe, and allowed us to glimpse at how this character will evolve from player to spy, was how Margaret Frazer, incisively and succinctly gives us a thumbnail sketch of events that will lead to one of England's bloodiest civil wars, the War of the Roses. Al in all, this was a very fast paced and very enjoyable read, that I would encourage lovers of medieval mystery novels to pick up and read.

is found in this latest entry in Margaret Frazer's series featuring Dame Frevisse and/or Joliffe. And this is one of the best in the series! As a reader I need to at least like the characters in a book, and Dame Frevisse and Joliffe have always appealed because of their intelligence, astuteness and sharp wits. You get to live a bit of history, just a small dose, not overwhelming, and the people who figure in this lordly mystery are fully drawn and entertaining, most of them historically accurate, a few just fictional. The author writes extremely well, and the action comes alive as what should have been a simple task -- finding a letter, previously unknown to exist, and turning it over to the Duke of York to whom it will matter a great deal -- becomes dangerous and complicated. Joliffe, in other books a traveling player working within a small group to make a living traveling and performing at manors and castles, has become something else entirely: a spy, a highly respected and loyal follower: a fighter. Can we expect another book that will peel away another layer of the mysterious Joliffe? One can hope so, as well as another chapter in Dame Frevisse's eventful life as a nun. I really liked this book. If you've kept up with this series, don't miss this latest entry!