“Superb…an appropriate homage”—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times
The much-anticipated final installment in Ariana Franklin’s popular Mistress of the Art of Death historical mystery series, finished by the author’s daughter after her death.
England. 1191. After the death of her friend and patron, King Henry II, Adelia Aguilar, England’s vaunted Mistress of the Art of Death, is living comfortably … vaunted Mistress of the Art of Death, is living comfortably in retirement and training her daughter, Allie, to carry on her craft—sharing the practical knowledge of anatomy, forensics, and sleuthing that catches murderers. Allie is already a skilled healer, with a particular gift for treating animals. But the young woman is nearly twenty, and her father, Rowley, Bishop of Saint Albans, and his patron, the formidable Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, have plans to marry Allie to an influential husband . . . if they can find a man who will appreciate a woman with such unusual gifts.
When a friend in Cambridgeshire falls ill, Allie is sent to Ely, where her path will cross with Lord Peverill, a young aristocrat who would be a most suitable match for the young healer. But when Allie arrives, all is chaos. A village girl has disappeared—and she’s not the first. Over the past few months, several girls from the villages surrounding Ely have vanished. When the body of one of the missing is discovered, Allie manages to examine the remains before burial. The results lead her to suspect that a monstrous predator is on the loose. Will her training and her stubborn pursuit of the truth help her find the killer…or make her the next victim?
A richly detailed, twisty thriller, Death and the Maiden is historical mystery at its finest—and a superb final episode in Ariana Franklin’s much-loved, much-acclaimed series.
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This book is hard to describe. It’s from the series of — my memory of the title may be faulty–Mistress of the arts of death, which I enjoyed enough to remember it several years after reading it. Very few of the select-a-word (above) come close. some of the main characters are close to Eleanor of Aquitaine, some to her husband King Henry. One of the protagonists came from Italy, where she had trained to be a physician, to England, where she could be tried and killed for a witch for revealing her skill, so she avoids any hint of witchcraft when she’s called to determine the cause of death of some corpse that has been found, i.e., she’s an unofficial coroner. She lives in a close group of women in this medieval period.
this is a lame review of this very interesting book
Talent and imagination must combine to create a credible world of long ago in a credible and entertaining adventure.
This is the 5th and final book in Ariana Franklin’s Mistress of the Art of Death series, written posthumously by her daughter. I loved the other books in the series. Franklin was a master of plot and character development, her prose captivating, her research impeccable, and her mysteries anything but formulaic. I had been looking forward to reading this book, but sadly, I found it lacking on every level and nowhere as good as the others.
Very entertaining.
I have enjoyed every one of this series by Ariana Franklin. I’m truly saddened that we won’t see any more. These books had great characters, and the historical and drama of each novel made for a long night of a consistent turning of pages!
Boring. Read a bout 4 chapters and deleted it
Interesting historically but predictable ending.
3 1/2 stars
This is an interesting look at women in medicine at a time when women were hardly considered proper providers of such treatment. I like the characters once I came to know and understand them. The mystery was almost an afterthought, but it is there. I did not realize that this was the fifth book in the Mistress of the Art of Death series. I thought it was a standalone book. I didn’t find that a huge problem as every character and situation is well introduced with a bit of background.
The book gets a bit ponderous at times. There is an abundance of characters, and an overabundance of archaic and little used words. I had the feeling that the authors wrote this book with one hand on the keyboard while the other paged through a thesaurus, picking out the longest and most unfamiliar words they could find. I have a fairly broad vocabulary and don’t generally mind books that use a few unusual words – it’s a good chance to learn their meanings, but this book is beyond the pale in how many it used. I’m sure the idea was to impress the reader with the writers’ knowledge, but it failed, especially since some of those ten-dollar words originated after the historic era in which the book is set. Again, I could deal with a sprinkling of those words, but it really slows down reading when I need to constantly keep a dictionary at hand. I noted at least 79 of these words in just the first half of the book, and that doesn’t count the several I skipped over when I lost interest in figuring out their meaning.
There is reference to 1,001 Arabian Nights in that to save her life, a character buys days by telling stories. She’s been kidnapped and about to be murdered when she convinces her abductor to allow her to tell him a tale. It works well, until she makes herself the hero rather than him. Things get tense, but you never question that rescue will arrive in time to save her.
There were unbelievable things in the book. The biggest being when the woman doctor speaks of bacterial infections. She then emphasizes to young children that “. . . if you don’t want to die and you don’t want to catch it yourselves, is that you will have to make damn sure that every inch of this room is scrubbed until it squeaks.” Then, “You should all be scrubbed from head to toe, until you squeak.” This book takes place in medieval times when they’d have been much more likely to speak of humors and the devil being behind infections. I consulted a couple of dictionaries to make sure I was not mistaken about the origin of the word “bacteria.” I wasn’t. Both books agree that the word was not recorder until the mid-nineteenth century. And hygiene wasn’t a universal thing until well into, at least, the 1800s.
I had to push myself to keep reading this book until at least the middle of it. By that point, many of the characters had been dropped out of the story, and it was easier to follow their purpose. At that point, I found myself completely drawn into the action. The ending held a huge surprise.
I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley. I thank them for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.
Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins for an early reader copy!
Strange things are happening in the Fens, once home for healer Adelia Aguilar. Now Adelia is in retirement, and rarely visits, until she gets an urgent message that a dear friend is deathly ill. Unfortunately Adelia can’t go, as she is injured, so she sends her daughter Allie, a healer in her own right, in her place. Allie is looking forward to using her skills to heal Gyltha, who she finds in terrible shape when she arrives in the village of Ely. But strange things are happening, as first one girl, and then another disappears. And then, weeks later, the bodies begin to appear….
At home, Allie’s parents want to ensure her safety and prosperity by finding her a suitable husband. But healers are oftentimes considered witches, and finding just the right match will be challenging. Add to that the fact that Allie is truly not interested in marriage and what is a good medieval parent to do! Is it possible that handsome and charming Lord Peverill might just be the one?
Using both her healing arts and investigative abilities Allie digs into finding out what has happened to the girls and who is behind their disappearance and murder. But the closer she gets, the more danger she is in of being the next victim…
Death and the Maiden is the perfect finish to the Mistress of the Art of Death series. Like mocha frosting on chocolate cake, Norman and Franklin draw us in to the tantalizing mystery, and then sneakily misdirects us to the many possible suspects. It’s a must read!
This marvelous historical mystery series was begun by Ariana Franklin (aka Diana Norman) in 2007 and ends with this book co-authored by her daughter, Samantha Norman. At the time she wrote the first book in the Mistress of the Art of Death, she was 74. She died four years later.
The fifth and last book in the Mistress of the Art of Death series is “Death and the Maiden.” It is set in 1191, and Adelia Aguilar has retired from being the mistress of the art of death and is training her daughter, Allie, to carry on her legacy. As the book opens, Rowley, Bishop of Saint Albans has arrived for a visit with his mistress, Adelia, and their daughter, Allie. Rowley is adamant that his 20-year-old daughter will be married and headstrong Allie is equally adamant that she will not marry at all. When a stranger arrives at their door demanding that Adelia accompany her to Cambridgeshire to help cure her long-time friend, Gyltha. Adelia must decline because she has injured herself in a fall. Allie declares herself available and her parents reluctantly agree to let her go. What Allie finds when she arrives a village in chaos because another young village girl has gone been killed – and isn’t the first. Allie believes there is a serial killer loose in Cambridgeshire, but who is he and can Allie identify him before he strikes again?
This is a good conclusion to a marvelous series. It is an easy read and Franklin will quickly have you immersed in 1191 wintry England. However, Adelia and Rowley make what amounts to a guest appearance in this book. We’ll never know whether Franklin had intended this change of direction for the series or if it is her daughter who decided on the change. In any event, those readers who have read this series since its 2007 debut will undoubtedly be disappointed. Like the previous book, this book seems to be cobbled together with the first part of the book written by Franklin and the second part written by her daughter.
If you’ve followed this series, you’ll probably want to have closure on the series and the characters, so you’ll read this book.
My thanks to Morrow and Edelweiss for an eARC.
3.5 stars
I was so excited about this book and couldn’t wait to delve in. I read all of the books in the Mistress of the Art of Death series and loved them all. The idea of getting a conclusion to the series left me in great anticipation. Death and the Maiden was not at all what I was expecting however. For that reason, this review is a bit difficult to write.
Franklin’s character Adelia is a spitfire. She demands her presence to be known and she’s unwilling to let anything deter her from the path she has created for herself. Furthermore, her relationship with Rowley is a show stopper. Franklin let the drama that played out between them carry the reader from page to page wanting more. I had expectations for this book to carry on with that tradition. There’s where I made a crucial mistake (I probably should have considered the title a bit more!). Norman changes direction and makes Allie the main protagonist. Adelia and Rowley take a backseat to the main action. Perhaps if I went into the story expecting this, I would have enjoyed the book more.
With all of that said, the plot of the story is okay. Adelia, after hurting her ankle, sends Allie to help a friend in need of medical assistance. Rowley, feeling Allie needs to find a husband, agrees to the journey with the intentions of making sure she finds a suitor at her destination. When Allie arrives at the village, a young girl has gone missing. Allie will need to use all the lessons she has been taught by Arianna to determine what is going on in the village.
Although the story was good, I felt it sort of dragged on at times and it took longer to read than I expected. While not a page turner, Death and the Maiden is still an enjoyable read. My recommendation to others is to read this as a stand alone OR go into it with no expectations in relation to the other books in the series. This may help you enjoy the book more!