Category Archives: Ariana Franklin

Review: THE ASSASSIN’S PRAYER by Ariana Franklin

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TheAssassinsPrayerAudioI embarked on THE ASSASSIN’S PRAYER (aka A MURDEROUS PROCESSION) somewhat wistfully. Having liked its three predecessors very much I wanted to read it but knowing it is the last in the small series gives a finality to my involvement with its ongoing characters that is quite rare. I saved it up for as long as I could but in the end my curiosity about the fate of its central character, an unlikely but engaging Medieval female doctor, demanded that I read this last instalment.

As the book opens it is 1176 or thereabouts, two years since the events of the third book in the series, RELICS OF THE DEAD and life for Adelia, her young daughter and the close friends who are a de facto family is relatively calm. But calm lives do not make for fascinating reading and the drama of this novel is sparked when King Henry demands that Adelia, her loyal manservant Mansur and others accompany his daughter Joanna, who is only 10, on her journey to marry King William II of Sicily. To ensure Adelia’s return Henry refuses her permission to take Allie, the young daughter she had with her lover Rowley (now Bishop of St Albans) and entrusts the child to the care of his imprisoned wife Eleanor. Almost from the beginning the large travelling party is plagued by a series of setbacks – a lame horse, medical emergencies and so on – that some ascribe to the ‘witch’ Adelia. But the real cause is far more sinister: one of the travellers wants Adelia dead and will go to any lengths to make it happen.

I can see looking back that these books have gotten progressively less mysterious as the series has progressed but this one is hardly a mystery at all. It’s more straight historical fiction with overtones of thriller I suppose. Not that I care really (it wouldn’t take much for me to digress for a rant about the ludicrous and unnecessary genre-isation of literature) but I thought I should make it clear in case all you want is a book that is pure historical crime fiction. If so this is not the book for you as there really isn’t much of a whodunnit element.

If however you are interested in the period, lovingly recreated with equal parts research and imagination, great characters and a romp of an adventure then I’d recommend the book, though this is one of those cases where having read the previous instalments is a real advantage by offering insight into some of the characters’ behaviour and choices. As always the period details are absorbing and this time some of the novel’s highlights are due to Adelia and company’s interactions with a community of Cathars, some members of which are first encountered when the travelling party has fallen ill and must take refuge so that the sick can be tended to. Franklin uses this community, essentially a splinter group which derided the more ostentatious and corrupt practices of the Catholic Church, to explore  the differences between religious doctrine and genuine faith which is a theme she has visited in earlier novels too. It is perhaps due to my own biases in this arena that I find her exploration of this idea both engaging and timely. The brutal torture and murder of people due solely to their apparent disregard for the prevailing religious doctrine is not, sadly, something found only in history books and I guess I cling to the hope that any time the tragic irony of this kind of stupidity can be exposed we collectively draw a little closer to eradicating this nonsense from our world.

In many ways this is a more sombre book than its predecessors, as if the entire novel is subject to the pall of impending doom that hangs over the procession though really it is due to the sadness of its central character. Although happy to be going home to Sicily Adelia is almost bereft at leaving her daughter and when a truly horrible fate befalls a newly made friend and she is then made aware of the presence of a malevolent force intent upon her destruction it’s not hard to see why Adelia isn’t as quick with the witty banter as she has been in earlier novels. I thought this more serious tone quite fitting for the last book in the series but of course it probably was not meant to be the last one and I’m undoubtedly attributing something never intended by the author (who died last year). Even so there are hints of the old humour and the story itself doesn’t allow the reader much time to dwell on its sadnesses, quickly moving from near-miss, to capture, to escape and more. Although probably unintended I found the cliffhanger ending quite satisfying as I have imagined my own conclusion to Adelia’s story but I do appreciate that many readers feel a little cheated by the unresolved nature of things,

I’m sure Franklin has taken some liberties with history and acceptable behaviour in creating this novel and its predecessors but I neither know nor care what they are. In the main the historical context is accurate and Franklin explains, via an afterword  some of her reasoning for diverting in the smaller details. Adelia and her unorthodox collection of loved ones have been a delight to meet and I recommend their adventures highly.

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I’ve reviewed all the earlier books in this series MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH, THE SERPENT’S TALE and RELICS OF THE DEAD (aka GRAVE GOODS)
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My rating 4/5
Narrator Diana Bishop
Publisher Random House/AudioGO [This edition 2011, original edition 2010]
ASIN B005AON1PW
Length 10 hours 52 minutes
Format audio (mp3)
Book Series #4 in the Mistress of the Art of Death/Adelia Aguilar series
Source I bought it
Creative Commons Licence
This work by http://reactionstoreading.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Sisters in Crime Challenge Post #2: Historical Women

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To me at least the phenomenon of historical fiction which features somewhat feisty females is easily understandable. If you read much actual history, including contemporary primary sources from just about any time before the 20th Century (and a good deal of the stuff written after 1900 too) women don’t appear all that often. When we do we’re generally in the background being demure (if we’re lucky) or being traded like chattel and abused in every way imaginable (when fortune does not smile so kindly upon us). So it doesn’t surprise me that female crime writers enjoy creating imaginary worlds of times gone by in which women participate more equitably in world affairs than reality might have allowed.

One of my recent, and newly favourite, discoveries in this genre is Ariana Franklin who was introduced to me by Norman from Crime Scraps Review (who single-handedly reignited my interest in historical fiction after I’d abandoned the genre many years ago). Franklin is a pseudonym for journalist and writer Diana Norman who sadly passed away earlier this year.  So far I’ve read three of the four adventures set in medieval England in which a woman, the rather magnificent Adelia Aguilar, shines. She is part of a team sought out by King Henry II to investigate a gruesome death which is being blamed on the Jewish population whom Henry is sick of offering protection because while he is doing so they’re not out earning money with which to pay him taxes. Adelia is said to be able to ‘read bodies’ which is the skill she brings to the table.

The basic facts of Adelia’s character, including her being trained as a doctor in Italy, are allowed for by historical record according to the Ariana Franklin website. And who knows…the other aspects of her unconventional character such her forwardness, eschewing of romance and disdain for organised religion might well have appeared in real women of the 12th century though we’ll probably never know because they do not make copious appearances in the few contemporary sources remaining. But it’s pretty difficult to imagine that there haven’t always been at least a few women wanting something more than a life of slavery and playing second-fiddle to men.

But the books do not only offer a marvellous protagonist, they are first and foremost tales of adventure and derring-do, with intricate plots and of loads of period detail to become absorbed in. In order the series books are

Franklin also wrote a standalone novel called City of Shadows which purports to tell the tale of the last living granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. I do own this one but haven’t read it yet either.

There are a plethora of historical fiction series written by women and many are similarly packed with strong female protagonists, though I have to admit I don’t like them all equally (and one or two have been the subject of a rant). Three I do enjoy and think share Franklin’s attention to period detail, ability to create warm and intelligent characters and willingness to have a little fun and display a sense of humour are

Elizabeth Peters whose novels featuring wealthy heiress Amelia Peabody and her implausible but delightful adventures in the archaeological digs of 1880′s Egypt are a treat I still enjoy. The first book, Crocodile on the Sandbank, was released in 1975 and the 19th book in the series was released last year. Of course Amelia is just a little over the top but I can’t help but get swept up in her various escapades, helped along by the exotic locations and Peters’ attention to detail.

Imogen Robertson whose novel Instruments of Darkness I read last year and thoroughly enjoyed. It’s set in England in 1780 and features as one of two investigators Mrs Harriet Westerman who runs her family estate while her husband is off at sea with the Navy. She does what has to be done and stands up for those less able, even when it gets dangerous for her to do so.

Victoria Thompson whose first mystery set at the very end of the 19th Century and featuring a New York midwife, Sarah Brandt, was called Murder on Astor Place. Sarah, who has been widowed before the book begins, is estranged from her wealthy family and so has to stand on her own two feet from the outset when she alone tackles an investigation into the murder of a young girl (after trying and failing to get either the police or the girl’s parents interested). I somehow lost track of this series but realise there are now 14 books to try, all seemingly named after famous New York streets.

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To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sisters in Crime (US) author, blogger and current Sisters in Crime board member Barbara Fister issued book bloggers the challenge of writing about women’s contribution to crime fiction. There are three levels of the challenge and I’m aiming for the expert level which requires me to write ten blog posts about works of crime fiction by a woman author and, for each, mention three similar women authors whose works I would recommend.  Though I am taking Barbara at her word and using the “whenever” deadline as a concrete goal, so it may take me a while to do all ten posts. And it turns out I might find it hard to stick to recommending just 4 authors per post. Even if you only occasionally blog about crime fiction why not join in the challenge and help celebrate the women who write it? So far for this challenge I have written about:

Review: Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin

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Relics of the Dead (also published as Grave Goods in the US) is the second selection for my face to face book club this month (we meet on Sunday) and I’m also counting it as my third book towards the Historical Fiction Challenge. I’ve actually read more than 3 historical books this year but I’ve used those for other challenges.

The book opens in 1154 as an earthquake engulfs Glastonbury Abbey and a dying monk sees people lowering a coffin into a fissure created in the earth. Did the coffin contain the body of the legendary King Arthur, long-thought to be merely sleeping in the nearby hills until his people need him again? Twenty-two years later the monk’s nephew, who was present as his uncle died, shares the information with King Henry II who has just quashed one Welsh rebellion and is desperate to rid himself of the legend of Arthur lying in wait to rise again. There has been a fire at Glastonbury Abbey and Henry orders the coffin to be dug up. He then commands the one person in his kingdom who has the skills to authenticate the bones as Arthur’s. Adelia Aguilar, the doctor who can ‘read bones’, reluctantly agrees to attempt to determine the age of the bones. With her daughter and faithful attendants she travels to Glastonbury, travelling part of the way with Lady Emma Wolvercote and her party who are on their way to lay claim to Lady Emma’s estate. Later, Adelia discovers she did not make it to her destination. Or did she?

As with the previous two books in this series, Relics of the Dead is first and foremost a good old-fashioned adventure full of brave Knights performing feats of derring-do while less noble souls engage in more prosaic acts. The legend of Arthur and Guinevere is woven artfully into the story unfolding around Adelia in the present day and there’s barely a moment for the reader to catch her breath with several action-packed threads playing out at once.

All of this is accompanied by engrossing information about the historical period, so you feel like you’re learning something while being thoroughly entertained. Under her real name (Diana Norman) Franklin has researched and written extensively about Henry II and her affection for the man is evident in this book. His faults are talked about, but Franklin generally tends to highlight his foresight and modern thinking by introducing such things as trial-by-jury and other innovations. Having read three of these books now, I’m beginning to develop my own crush on Henry Plantagenet.

Although some people argue that Adelia is an unbelievable character for her time, Franklin makes a a good case that women in her situation would have had more scope to fend for themselves than the true upper class women that Adelia sometimes mixes with. And even if she is not entirely credible for her time, she’s wonderful: strong, loving, loyal and smart. Her loyal attendants from the previous books, Mansur and Gyltha, are again excellent in their supporting roles and of course the Bishop of St Albans, the father of Adelia’s child, makes another trouble-filled appearance. There are some unforgettable new characters in this tale too, not least of which is the old woman who runs the Pilgrim’s Inn at which Adelia and her party stay while in Glastonbury. Franklin is a dab hand at developing very strong, memorable characters quite quickly.

Sadly Diana Norman passed away earlier this year and I have not heard of any unpublished manuscripts lying about so I only have one last book in this series to read, which I think I shall save for some time. I thoroughly recommend this installment of the series to anyone who loves getting absorbed in well-written adventures full of memorable characters.

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Relics of the Dead has been reviewed at Euro Crime and Mysteries in Paradise

I have reviewed the first two books in this series Mistress of the Art of Death and The Serpent’s Tale

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My rating 4.5/5
Author website http://www.arianafranklin.com/
Publisher Bantam Press [2009]
ISBN 9781409084334
Length 251 pages
Format eBook (ePub)
Book Series #3 in the Adelia Aguilar/Mistress of the Art of Death series
Source I bought it

Review: The Serpent’s Tale by Ariana Franklin

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My first book to count towards this year’s historical fiction challenge was published in the US as The Serpent’s Tale and in the UK as The Death Maze.

Adelia Aguilar’s second outing takes place more than a year after we first met her in Mistress of the Art of Death. Prevented from returning to her native Salerno in Italy by King Henry II in case he might need her again she has virtually retired to the English countryside with her trusted friends Mansur and Gyltha and her baby daughter Allie. However when Henry’s mistress Rosamund is murdered she is dragged back into the service of the King by Rowley Picot, now one of Henry’s Bishops but formerly Adelia’s lover. Henry’s wife Eleanor of Aquitaine is accused of murdering Rosamund but Rowley does not believe her to be the murderer and wants Adelia to uncover the truth before the country erupts into the bloody war that would surely result if Henry’s wife was found to have murdered his favourite mistress. On their way to Rosamund’s home Adela’s party discover the body of a young man near the nunnery of Godstow, a case which Adelia is also called on to investigate during the later part of the novel.

Adelia is still my favourite thing about the series and here her behaviour is probably more believable than it was in the first book as her willingness to put herself in danger is tempered, a little, by wanting to keep her daughter safe. However she is still fiercely principled and determined to find out the truth of each situation, even if the person at the centre of the event is considered an insignificant nobody. And again Adelia’s place in the world is precariously balanced as she has to continue pretending that it is Mansur who has the medical knowledge because if it was widely known to be her, a mere woman, she would be accused of witchcraft. In fact the role of women in this society continues to be a theme that Franklin explores, here primarily via a storyline in which a young women of high birth is promised to a man she does not love but when she attempts to forge her own life she is thwarted and reminded that she is little more than someone else’s property.

Franklin is a master at using a mixture of fact and fiction, people and place to create a world that she draws readers into. Whether it be lost in the maze that protects Rosamund’s towering home or bailing out the water from the boat being dragged down the nearly frozen Thames or inside the nunnery at Godstow, where for one reason or another all the characters descend for a good portion of the story, I felt like I was there thanks to Franklin’s imagery and period details. I particularly enjoy her portrait of King Henry as a leader so far ahead of everyone else in both thought and practice that he can never achieve everything he wants. It’s an interesting perspective and well-drawn too.

Undoubtedly one of the downsides of producing such an assured debut is living up to that standard and, for me at least, The Serpent’s Tale didn’t quite manage it. With two seemingly unconnected murders and a lot of other extraneous events it just didn’t feel quite as tightly written and suspense-filled to me, though the main thread was quite fascinating and certainly got dramatic towards the end. However, being slightly less than utterly brilliant still makes for a very entertaining novel that I highly recommend to fans of historical fiction.

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The Serpent’s Tale has been reviewed at Euro Crime three times (1, 2, 3) and at Jen’s Book Thoughts

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My rating 4/5
Author website http://www.arianafranklin.com/
Publisher Berkley Books [2008]
ISBN 9780425225745
Length 386 pages
Format trade paperback
Book Series #2 in the Adelia Aguilar/Mistress of the art of death series
Source I bought it

Halfway Down the Stairs

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OK the title really doesn’t have any relevance as this is a post about being half way through the reading year and reflecting on my favourite books so far. But I never think of the word halfway without remembering my favourite A A Milne poem. As I wrote about way back in the early days of this blog one of my very favourite bookish presents was a copy of When We Were Very Young and Halfway Down is my favourite poem from it (other people can recite Keats and Wordsworth by heart, I can do A A Milne).

Anyway, on to the favourites. Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is collating people’s thoughts on this very topic so do stop by her blog and tell her your favourite reads so far this year. Given the overall improvement in the quality of my reading these days I could easily list a top 30 or 40 books but I suspect that is not the spirit of things so I’ve whittled it down to a favourite ten. I’ll be curious to see how many of them survive to appear in my favourite books for the year. Could I possibly read ten better books than this in the remaining 6 months of Twenty Ten?

Weekly Geeks 2010-5 – Fun Author Facts about Ariana Franklin

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This week’s Weekly Geeks topic asks us to

1. Choose a writer you like.
2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.
3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.

Rather than choose one of my ‘old favourite’ authors I thought I’d learn something as well so chose an author I only recently discovered. A couple of weeks ago I read Ariana Franklin’s Mistress of the Art of Death, a historical crime fiction novel set in medieval England. I really loved the book (it received my first 5-star rating of the year) and have been banging on about it to all and sundry ever since I finished it (seriously if you like crime fiction or historical fiction or strong female characters with a sense of humour or words on a page in any form you should read the book). Thanks again to Norman of Crime Scraps for introducing me to my favourite read of the year so far.

So, what can a fairly cursory search of the internet tell us about this author?

What is the first piece of evidence we can find that Ariana Franklin is enticed by creating fiction?

Ariana Franklin is not the author’s real name. It’s is a pseudonym for Diana Norman, a British journalist and writer of historical novels and non-fiction. Clearly Ms Norman is comfortable creating new characters, even for herself.

Did Ariana enjoy her 21st birthday party?

Nope. She was working as a journalist at the time and her editor sent her to cover a murder in Southampton so she missed the entire thing. I wonder if they held it without her?

Does she come from a privileged background?

Yes and no. She was born just before World War 2 and spent her first years in the large London house of her father’s uncle who was a Minister in Winston Churchill’s government. They had nannies and chauffeurs and all of that. But she and her mother moved to Torquay to escape the air raids and her parents eventually divorced so money was tight and they no longer lived in any kind of opulence (in fact they lived in a flat above a shop and she left school early to start earning money).

Am I the only one blathering on about how good this book is?

Franklin/Norman with her husband Barry Norman, with her CWA award

No, Franklin has loads of fans. She won the Crime Writer’s Association Ellis Peters Award for best historical crime novel  in 2007 for Mistress. To be eligible for the award each entry has to be involved with the investigation of a crime; evoke, capture and transmit the flavour of the period in which it was set (any time up to 1970); have a very high standard of writing; and finally should grab the reader so that they hated to leave the story on the final page. Sounds good huh?

Has Ms Franklin/Norman nearly caused an international incident?

The answer is probably not but every website I visited mentioned that as a journalist she invaded Wales with the Royal Marines. I’m guessing this wasn’t an actual invasion (surely the endless stream of entertainment news would have been interrupted for such an event) but the articles never really give any more details so I’m free to make up my own right? I’m guessing she was heading for the book lover’s capital of the world, Hay-on-Wye (a wonderful market town in Wales which does not much else but sell books).

Who is her favourite author?

I don’t know. According to the Book Depository interview it’s someone called Jane Austin. But I’ve never heard of her. One of my all time favourite authors is Jane Austen but that’s clearly someone completely different.

Is it dedication or madness to write a biography of someone so obscure that even after you’ve put in all that research and effort no one is interested?

OK this question doesn’t really have an answer but as Diana Norman she wrote a non-fiction biography entitled Terrible Beauty: Life of Constance Markievicz, 1868-1927. I have never heard of poor Constance but apparently I’m not the only one because even the publisher fails to provide any information about the book or the woman for inclusion on Amazon. I’m intrigued, but not enough to buy the book and find out what heck was so terrible about Constance’s beauty.

So if I go and read Mistress of the Art of Death and love it as much as Bernadette did will I go crazy waiting for the next installment of the life of Adelia Aguilar?

Well I can’t guarantee you won’t go crazy (I’m not a doctor after all) but there are two more books in the series already, The Serpent’s Tale and Grave Goods so you should be OK for a while at least.

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Sources used for this post

Ariana Franklin website (especially biography page)

Crime Writers Association website

An interview with Ariana Franklin by the Book Depository

Review: Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

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I am indebted to Norman (alias Uriah) (or is it t’other way ’round?) from Crime Scraps for introducing me to this book and the rather magnificent Adelia Aguilar. As is usually the way when I fall in love with a book I can’t quite explain why. Oh I can (and will) describe the things I liked about it but I can never seem to explain what sets the books I love apart from the books I like immensely. I find this annoying. Never-the-less, on with what will be a gushing review.

Mistress of the Art of Death drew me into its medieval English setting immediately with a present-tense opening description of a cavalcade of pilgrims, and three important foreigners, returning to Cambridgeshire after Easter in Canterbury. The foreigners are from Salerno in Italy and they are Simon of Naples (an investigator of renown), Adelia Aguilar (a qualified doctor who can ‘read’ corpses) and her manservant Mansur. They have been sent to Cambridgeshire because King Henry II asked the King of Sicily to send his best people to investigate a crime. One young boy has been horribly killed (crucified so they say) and several other children are missing. The town’s Jewish population, having been blamed for the atrocities, have been provided sanctuary in the King’s local castle but still they are hounded, afraid and, more importantly from King Henry’s point of view, unable to earn money from which they can pay him taxes.

Although it runs to 502 pages I gobbled up this book in a couple of settings, wishing I had the patience to take things more slowly because I didn’t want it to end but being unable to resist the pull of just a few more pages. The character of Adelia Aguilar would have been enough to capture my heart as she is a feisty, intelligent woman who is not afraid of telling things as they are as evidenced by this extract

It wasn’t that she had anything against the faith of the New Testament; left alone it would be a tender and compassionate religion…No, what Adelia objected to was the Church’s interpretation of God as a petty, stupid, money-grubbing, retrograde, antediluvian tyrant who, having created a stupendously varied world, had forbidden any enquiry into its complexity, leaving His people flailing in ignorance.

Eschewing romance (though not necessarily love) for science and the practice of medicine Adelia is unconventional in many ways but is very humane and thoughtful too. If she’s not enough for you there are a swag of other terrific characters here too. The housekeeper Gyltha and her grandson Ulf who both ‘test’ the foreigners in their way before giving them support and information in equal measure are treasures. As are Simon of Naples, a wise and moral investigator deeply in love with his wife; Prior Geoffrey, grateful for Adelia’s ministrations to his delicate prostate problems; and Sir Rowley Picot, initially a suspect in Adelia’s eyes but who goes on to become an object of her affection. Even the unsympathetic characters like Prioress Joan are well drawn.

I’m sure there are period scholars who could pull apart the book and find inaccuracies but I can’t and probably wouldn’t care if I could. From my limited knowledge there do not appear to be too many liberties taken with important factual elements incorporated into the story and the rich detail of daily life fascinated me. Medical practices, the grittiness of the Crusades, the treatment of women, the bigotry between religions, the interesting role played by Henry II in history (who always is upstaged in the history books by his later namesake and all his wives) are all depicted in a very engaging way. These details wrap themselves around a horrific crime, the essence of which at least was factual according to the author, which was recounted in such a compelling way that I was forced to stay up way past my bed time to finish.

Mistress of the Art of Death offered a delicious reading experience loaded with wit, terrific period imagery and details, an intriguing mystery and unpredictable, fascinating characters. I have already ordered the next adventure to feature Adelia and whoever else she takes with her on her next adventure.

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My rating 5/5

Publisher: Bantam Books [2007]; ISBN: 978-0-553-81800-0 Length: 502 pages Setting England, year 1170-71

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Mistress of the Art of Death is reviewed at Crime Scraps (thanks again for the recommendation Norm), Dear Author, Euro Crime,  again at Euro Crime and at My Fluttering Heart. It is also used as the basis of an interesting commentary on historical fiction at Detectives Beyond Borders.