The literary scene is choked by the bloated corpses of crime procedurals, novels which shamelessly revel in the depravities of those few among us willing and eager to kill. Which is why I'm grateful to Ms. Franklin for delivering a fresh twist on an old theme. Mistress of The Art of Death, the first in a series of books about her 12th century heroine, Adelia Aguilar, is a journey not just into the minds of killers, but killers from another, more brutal time.
Combining historical fiction with procedural mystery, Ms. Franklin introduces the reader to a female doctor in one of the most repressive times for women in human history. Adelia is given instruction at Salerno (present day Italy) which was, at this time, the center of medical learning in the western world, as well as an important port of intellectual exchange between the largely Christian west and the Jewish and Islamic east. Being what amounts to a medieval version of a modern university town, Salerno permitted, or at least did not stamp out, oddities such as female doctors. As such, Adelia has an opportunity to express her talents, talents which deliver her name to the thoughts of Henry II of England who commands her to solve a murder in his kingdom, that cold and faraway isle which, during the time of this tale, is undergoing a period of modernization and upheaval brought about by the king's reforms.
This is a tight tale, told well and with flair. I enjoyed the history more than the crime, but that speaks only to my own preferences. A fan of either will find this offering more than satisfactory. (4/5 Stars)
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