The Reeve's Tale

I re-read this as part of Book Bingo favorite Challenge.

Matthew Woderove who had lost his land lease for his inability/unwillingness to keep it up has been found dead. The accused is Reeve Master Naylor, was one of the two judges who found against Matthew and took away his lease. The other Judge was Matthew's brother-in-law Simon Perryn.

Gilbey Dunn a much disliked, well to do local land owner wants to take over the lease as does Matthew's widow, Mary (who has no children and therefore can not legally keep the lease)....

Mary has taken up with Tom Hulcote, who occasionally works for Gilbey and pushes Tom to speak up for the right of the land lease, which causes an even angrier dispute.

Add to this, Reeve Simon Perryn, Mary's brother, show more finds against both Gilbey & Tom and refuses the land rights to them both, until everyone cools off.

Two days after Tom threatens Simon, Tom is also found dead (murdered). Both Gilbey & Simon are accused of murdering Tom.

Dame Frevisse, the cellarer from St. Friedwides Priory who has been sent to act as judge in the stead of Master Naylor then becomes immersed in the solving of the murders.

I find this to be a very enjoyable mystery series. Margaret Frazer writes about everyday village & priory life in Medieval England. The main character Dame Frevisse is as intelligent as she is a formidable sleuth, and a delight to the genre of mystery novels. show less

Aside from the fact that I knew who the murderer was from a very early stage in the story, and that the solution was somewhat of a convenience, I enjoyed this story. The details of the workings of law in an English village and the daily life in the 1400s was enough to engage my mind, and as always, Frazer draws excellent characters which are worth reading about.

The characterization and writing are first rate. So is the period knowledge. However the so-called mystery will be obvious to any genre reader by midway through it. So the four stars are a compromise between thinking it is a 4.5 as a period piece and a 2.8 as a mystery. Depending on which matters more to you, this is or is not worth reading.

In this novel, Sister Frevisse gets more involved than she would like in the affairs of the village near the convent. The plot thickens when sickness comes, and much of the nuns' time is taken up in nursing. As usual, a very readable recreation of the past, though this is not my favorite in the series.

Margaret Frazer's Dame Frevisse series is one I always meant to get around to, especially after seeing some of her posts on the historical mystery mailing list, Crime Through Time. So when a friend sent me the Reeve's Tale I was quite happy. It is the tenth in the series, and I always prefer to read series in order, but it isn't always easy to find all the books in a series. So I went ahead and read this one, and am happy i did. It is tightly plotted, with good characters, and a great sense of its time (1440 AD) and place (a small English village). Recommended.