The Servant's Tale

The careful attention to detail and wintery atmosphere can’t make up for a rather pedestrian plot.
A drunken villein is seemingly on his way back to health as the nuns of St. Fridesweid tend to his needs. Somehow, though, he dies peacefully during the night. There are plenty of suspects, each with a grudge against the surly peasant.
Dame Frevisse again takes matters into her capable hands to protect the innocent and find the guilty. But then another murder occurs...
Just average.

A good second installment in the Sister Frevisse series, probably more of a 3.5 or 3.75 for me. The servant, Meg, works for the nuns at St. Frideswide as a scullery maid. Her husband, the drunken Barnaby, is allegedly killed in an accident when his cart collides with a troupe of actors. Soon to follow are two more deaths, and the acting troupe is in the frame. Frazer highlights the social and class biases at play against the troupe and we get more character development of Sister Frevisse and the head of the convent, Domina Edith, as well as Dame Claire, the apothecary/medical person for the convent. I found the development slow, as many pages are given over to sitting around dead bodies, although this does prove important to the story. show more It is probably best read in just a few sittings to keep track of some of the smaller details, not all of which necessarily lean toward the "whodunnit" aspect, but provide a lovely and clever sense of connectivity. Motives seem weak for all possible suspects, and that is a bit frustrating as we don't learn the actual motive until the very end, which always seems a bit of a cop-out to me. There are not a lot of clues in this one--but plenty of deception. show less

Synopsis: It is a very cold Christmas with little food and the nuns of St. Frideswide have the rheum. Into their midst descends a group of players carrying an injured man from the village. His death, that of his son, and of a nun are thought at first to be from misadventure or illness, but they are in fact murders. Dame Frevisse must discover the murderer and clear those who are falsely accused.
Review: Although it takes many chapters for the first murder to occur, the entire book is really fun to read. Descriptions of the 1400s are chillingly accurate, as area accounts of the duties of nuns and their sometimes decidedly odd personalities. The plot is nicely twisted with a rather surprising ending.

Some of the earlier Frevisse novels show very clearly her internal struggles with adapting to life as a nun, and this one does an excellent job. It also lays some groundwork for relationships that further develop as the series continues. Most notably it introduces Joliffe, who now has his own series. Well paced, the story has an unusual twist (although it does give ample clues). As usual great care is given to the historical accuracy.

I enjoyed this story. The solution was apparent to me very early on, but I didn't mind for once. The author made the characters and setting so interesting that the mystery seemed almost a secondary part to the story.

The second adventure of Sister Frevisse, a nun in a 15th century convent in England. I found the characters (except for the always interesting Frevisse) a bit less involving than those in "The Novice's Tale", but it is still a good read, and the recreation of time and place truly impressive.

A little gruesome and I didn't see it coming. Nonetheless, I'm on to #3 because I like the world she has created here.