Sharon Kay Penman is the author of a series of great Historical novels.  Here she takes a break from that series and offers a mystery set in the Britain of Richard I.   After stumbling upon a murder, Justin de Quincy, bastard son of a bishop, is "hired" by Eleanor of Aquitane to find the killers.  Eleanor fears
that the murder is a part of her son John's scheme to usurp his brother Richard's throne.

As always, Ms Penman masterfully handles political plots and historical details and one can hardly begrudge her desire to try her hand at a mystery.  However, one hopes she will not be sidetracked from her superior Historical novels by what seems sure to be a series of Justin de Quincy mysteries.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (B-) Orrin C. Judd

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Sharon Penman Links:

    -AUTHOR SITE: SharonKayPenman.com
    -Sharon Penman (Encyclopedia Britannica)
    -Sharon Kay Penman (Wikipedia)
    -Sharon Kay Penman (The Chelsea Forum)
    -Sharon Kay Penman (Richard III Society)
    -Random House | Authors | Sharon Kay Penman
    -ESSAY: The Penman Chronicles Sharon Kay Penman, July 2006)
    -ARCHIVES: "sharon kay penman" (Find Articles) -OBIT: Sharon Kay Penman, Whose Novels Plumbed Britain’s Past, Dies at 75: The author of best-selling books set in medieval England and Wales, she insisted that historical fiction had an obligation to the facts. (NY Times, 1/31/21)
    -INTERVIEW: Author Interview: Sharon Kay Penman (Wendy Zollo, Trivium Publishing)
    -INTERVIEW: Potholes and dragons on the road to the past (WHITNEY SPOTTS, 4/06/05, City Pulse)
    -INTERVIEW: Time Bandits: A stolen manuscript almost waylaid Sharon Kay Penman's career (Interview By Jessica Turner, CityBeat)
    -AUDIO INTERVIEWS: with Sharon Kay Penman (Eye on Books)
    -INTERVIEW: Loaded Questions: "Here Be Dragons" Author, Sharon Kay Penman (Loaded Shelf)
    -PROFILE: Enter the world of Penman and get HOOKED... (Silverfox Productions)
    -PROFILE: UPT library staffer advises novelist (Peter Hart, University of Pittsburgh Times)
    -BOOK LIST: Elizabeth Chadwick's top 10 historical novels: 7. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman (Elizabeth Chadwick, The Guardian)
    -REVIEW: of The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman (1982) (Mary L. Newton, Trivium Publishing)
    -REVIEW: of Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman (1985) (Kristen Voskuil)
    -REVIEW: of When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman (1995) (Crisis)
    -REVIEW: of Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman (2002) (Alma A. Hromic, SF Site)
    -REVIEW: of Time and Chance (Sharan Newman,Anglican Theological Review)
    -REVIEW: of Time and Chance (Jenny Ivor, Rambles)
    -REVIEW: of The Queen's Man by Sharon Kay Penman (FS, Mystery Guide)
    -REVIEW: of Cruel as the Grave by Sharon Kay Penman (JP, Mystery Guide)
    -REVIEW: of Cruel as the Grave (Parker O'Connor, The Mystery Reader)
    -REVIEW: of Prince of Darkness by Sharon Kay Penman (Cat Eldridge, Green Man Review)
    -REVIEW: of the Justin de Quincy mysteries (Maria Nutick, Green Man Review)
    -PODCAST: Simon de Montfort and England’s First Revolution (BBC History Extra, 9/26/20)

Book-related and General Links:

Other books by Sharon Kay Penman:
    -The Sunne in Splendor
    -Here Be Dragons
    -Falls the Shadow     (one of Orrin's Top Ten Novels)
    -The Reckoning
    -When Christ & His Saints Slept

If you like Sharon Kay Penman, try:

Dumas, Alexandre
    -The Three Musketeers
    -The Man in the Iron Mask
    -Twenty Years After
    -The Count of Monte Cristo
    -Queen Margot

Sienkiewicz, Henryk
    -Quo Vadis?
    -The Teutonic Nights
    -The Little Trilogy
    -With Fire & Sword
    -The Deluge
    -Fire in the Steppe

Tranter, Nigel
    -The Bruce Trilogy
    -The Wallace