The Witch in the Well: A Catherine Levendeur Mystery

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What more can you ask for in a medieval mystery? This is by far the best Catherine LeVendeur mystery! In it we have Catherine and her family going back to the home of her mother because of a summons received by her grandfather. When they arrive they find a castle that is full of her relations, but it is also full of secrets. It seems that no one is telling the truth. Catherine and Edgar, along with her sister Agnes and her ward Margaret, set out to uncover all the secrets and therefore solve the family problems that everyone thinks are being experienced as a result of an ancient curse placed on their family. The book is a page-turner! There is a lot of action going on, and of course a time-constraint as well, since the well in the keep is going dry. Reading this book is like taking a time-flight back to medieval France.

rich story line, a little more fantastic than usual but still a great tale

The Witch in the Well is my first time reading a Catherine LeVendeur mystery. Catherine and her family are visiting her brother when they are suddenly called by their great grandfather to come to the family castle Boisvert. All the descendants of the LeVendeur family must be there. It seems that far back in the family lineage that started Catherine's family, someone married a fairy who now resides in a well and if the well goes dry then the family will die. Adonnen is the fairy that guards the family and lives in the well. Catherine doesn't know what to make of the family legend, but she starts to take it seriously when a messenger that her great grandfather sent ends up dead, and a mysterious lady keeps appearing to her. Is it Adonnen? At Boisvert she discovers that the women who reside at Boisvert are barren, and her great grandfather has not aged in twenty years. I enjoyed the fantasy and mystery of "The Witch in the Well," Sharan Newman is a wonderful storyteller and writes a mystery without making it a detective story. Another reader said that there wasn't much of a point for Catherine to be at her brother's castle in the beginning, and all I have to say to that is that characters in books and movies move from setting to setting, otherwise the books would be boring. It's part of telling the story. Catherine LeVendeur is a wonderful character, she's smart, witty, and an equal with her husband. Catherine is also a Christian and easily accepts her cousin Solomon though he is Jewish. Throughout the book the author makes a big deal that Solomon is Jewish, I really didn't see what the big deal was. I guess it wasn't a good thing to be Jewish back in the 12th century. Overall I enjoyed the history, the legend and the characters of "The Witch in the Well." It's a great historical novel.

This latest Catherine LeVendeur installment reads more like an adventure novel -- what with a family secret to decode and a castle siege to withstand -- than a "straight" mystery novel. Still, there were plenty of mysterious goings on and a murder or two to go around, and the novel was a fantastically absorbing and riveting read. Catherine and her children are summering at her brother's estate in the country, when brother and sister receive summons from their grandfather, Gargenaud of Boisvert, requesting that all his descendants come to Boisvert at once. Legend has it that the family are descended from a poor but honourable knight who served Charlemagne, and a beautiful "fairy" (Andonenn) who guarded a secret spring -- the spring that feeds the well in the castle keep of Boisvert. The fortunes of Boisvert and that of the family are tied to water flowing freely into the well. But now the well seems to have dried up, and Catherine's grandfather is filled with fear. He believes that if Andonenn's children come to the keep, than the curse will be reversed and the water will flow again. Catherine places little stock in legend and fairy stories. That is until messengers turn up dead, and a mysterious old woman urges Catherine to go to Boisvert before it is too late. Should Catherine endanger her family by taking them to Boisvert? Edgar is all for ignoring the summons, but Catherine has a hankering to see Boisvert again. Also, she's rather intrigued about the legend of Andonenn and the part she is supposed to play in all this... Strangely enough, in spite of all the mysterious and bewildering goings-on at Boisvert, compared to previous Catherine LeVendeur mystery novels, "The Witch in the Well" lacked the darkness and grim somberness that characterised those installments. But did this make "The Witch in the Well" an unexciting and not very engaging read? To the contrary. From the very beginning I was hooked, and eagerly read on until I reached the last page. I enjoyed discovering more about Catherine's family history, and watching her interact with her siblings. Obviously the inability to get along completely and sublimely with one's siblings is a universal condition. And I enjoyed that Sharan Newman showcased this, while also leaving room for readers to realise that that Catherine, her brother, Guillaume, and her sister, Agnes, all have their good points and not so wonderful points. Fast paced and suspenseful, and full of wonderful historical detail about the period (12th century France), "The Witch in the Well" is a treat not to be missed!