Kate Sedley

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

This was my first book by Sedley in her Roger the Chapman series. I must admit to thoroughly enjoying the book. I was completely engaged with the characters. I thought the mystery was tightly written. The author does an excellent job of creating a well written story with great historical accuracy and interest. I will definitely be picking up the other books in this series!

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

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