Historical Mysteries

After that build-up, can you resist the actual book? As long time readers of this series know, Catherine has been educated at the Paraclete at the feet of Heloise, of Abelard and Heloise fame, and this installment finds a pregnant Catherine trying to help Heloise's son, Astrolabe, out of a murder charge. Newman leaves no area of Catherine's difficult pregnancy, motherhood of two rambunctious toddlers, religious faith, and complex family feeling (her favorite cousin is a devout Jew) out of her novels, and this is part of the reason Catherine is so memorable. Newman is as well a skillful plotter, writing mysteries as clever as any being written today. As we lucky readers accompany Catherine on her life arc, here's to wishing Sharan Newman many, many productive years of writing ahead.

When I first wrote this review, I recommended starting with Newman's first title, Death Comes as Epiphany. Since then, Newman's first three books have become unavailable - hopefully the publisher is reprinting them in a user friendly mass market edition. This is a series that begs to be consumed in order.

No matter what you English think, in Scotland we usually give people a good meal, plenty to drink and then kill them while they sleep. --from Heresy

If you enjoy Sharan Newman, you may also enjoy Candace Robb, Margaret Frazer, Joan Wolf, Roberta Gellis, and Caroline Roe.