Mediocre medieval murder mystery with characters that lack depth. One is attracted to the genre by the likes of Ellis Peters, sadly only to discover that most of it is like this. If you're looking for something to restore your faith, this isn't it. ( )

First of the Brother Athelstan medieval mysteries. Athelstan is a Dominican friar set to assist Sir John, the corpulent coroner of London; this is more or less a punishment for him due to a disgrace from his past. Regardless of what name he writes under, or what series I’ve tried, I have been finding P.C. Doherty/Paul Harding’s historical mysteries a bit slow-going. While I like the premise for his characters, I find them not very well developed. But think it’s something about his writing style that puts me off more than anything. I can’t even say what it is—but it’s—well, I guess it’s boring, because I find my mind wandering when I try to read his books. They’re always slim little volumes and yet it takes me ages to get through them because I’m forever having to re-read parts. This one was no exception. I do like the grittiness of his books, the realistic descriptions of the sights, sounds and smells of medieval London, but I do believe I’m going to set anything by Mr. Doherty/Harding aside for the time being as this has been a universal reaction to his books regardless of what series it’s in, and this is the fourth series of his that I’ve tried. I did finish this, but it took awhile and when I was done, I felt like my time could have been better spent elsewhere. ( )

Paul Harding manages to make the filth, smells, decay and disease very believable and real. It is a dark and dreary place where these people live and you can feel it. The mystery is good but nothing spectacular. The characters are flawed and gritty but, despite the surroundings and everything else, manage to not be so miserable that you don’t want to read about them. The relationship between the two main characters can even be fun at times and the characters themselves, likeable. ( )

Rather boring, formulaic, detective novel. ( )

I generally list books under the pseudonym used in writing, but Mr. Doherty switched to his real name after the first book and I wanted to keep the series together. ( )