Kate Sedley

#10 Roger the Chapman series set in 1470’s England. Roger and new wife Adela are off to London in January, even though Adela is now three months’ pregnant. Adela has hopes of seeing some of the festivities to celebrate the royal wedding of King Edward’s four-year-old son to Lady Anne Mowbray. Meanwhile, Edward’s brother George, The Duke of Clarence sits in the Tower, charged with treason. Roger has a bad feeling about the trip, and sure enough, while in the crowd at the wedding and show more again during George’s trial the next day, Roger is spotted by Prince Richard, whom he has done service for in the past and whom he is extremely loyal to.

Richard charges Roger to solve the murder of a local goldsmith—or actually, the goldsmith’s son-in-law—as the wife is rumored to be the killer and she is related to King Edward’s latest mistress, Jane Shore. Richard wants to approach Jane to ask her to intercede for his brother George’s life, but he wants a bargaining chip before doing so. He feels that solving the murder and removing the suspicion from her cousin’s head will be enough. Roger ends up spending most of his week in the investigation while Adela spends time with the Lampreys, old friends of Roger’s from previous trips. And of course Roger solves the crime, although the answer was as plain as the nose on your face from midway through the book. This is one of my favorite historical series, with Roger’s ‘voice’ telling stories at an advanced age as he recalls them from his past. Depite the obviousness of the mystery, I still enjoyed this one and always applaud Sedley’s descriptions, settings and of course her characters, too. show less

This is one of those historical mysteries where I like the sound of the time period being covered—James III of Scotland? Edward IV? Sign me up!—but the execution leaves something to be desired. It’s a very talky mystery as characters bring each other up to speed on the historical events, and the first-person narration of Roger the Shrubber Chapman is repetitive. After six chapters, I lost interest in the story, but *did* want to find a good biography of Edward IV or of James III, so show more there is that. show less

First “Roger the Chapman” medieval mystery series set in 1470’s England. I’ve been waiting awhile to read this book and must say it’s worth the wait. It’s one of the best first-person POV books I’ve read in a long time. In this book, we meet a young Roger as he leaves the Abbey of Glastonbury, a former novice monk, now a traveling chapman or peddler. His first destination is the city of Bristol, where he meets the cook and housekeeper of a local Alderman who introduces him to show more his first mystery, a young man of the house who disappeared in London a few months ago. Well-written, with interesting historical detail and an episode in history that I also encountered in Sharon Kay Penman’s The Sunne in Splendour, but with a decidedly different twist. More! More! A+ show less

A slight but readable historical murder mystery set in fifteenth-century England. Roger the Chapman—a former novice turned travelling peddler—is more perceptive than many people, and uses his observational powers to help figure out who was responsible for multiple deaths in the town of Bristol. Kate Sedley writes briskly and with a good eye for historical detail; the approach to gender here did remind me on more than one occasion that this book was written in the '90s. I wouldn't swear show more off reading more from this series in the future, but I'm also not going to keep a particular eye out from more installments of it either. show less