Mistress of the Art of Death

A gripping, captivating book that blends the drama and depth of historical fiction with the finest elements of contemporary forensic thrillers. There has been the murder of four children in medieval Cambridge, England. The atrocities are promptly attributed to the town's Jewish population, which is seen as proof that Jews perform blasphemous rituals including the sacrifice of Christian infants. The monarch conceals the Cambridge Jews in a medieval fortification and gives them safety from the riotous rabble. Even though King Henry II has no friends among Jews—or anybody, really—he cares about what will happen to them. His treasury would fail without the taxes paid by Jewish merchants. Henry contacts his cousin, the King of Sicily, whose subjects include the top medical specialists in Europe, in the hopes that a scientific probe would clear the Jews, and he requests his finest "master of the art of death," an early form of the medical examiner. The young genius from the University of Salerno who was selected for the mission is an Italian doctor. However, the king has sent a "mistress" of the art of death, and her name is Adelia. Adelia travels to England with two friends, a Moor named Mansur and a Jew named Simon, in order to solve the mystery surrounding the Cambridge killings. It turns out that the perpetrator is a serial killer, most likely someone who has gone on a Crusade with the monarch. Adelia has to hide her actual identity as a doctor in a primitive and superstitious nation like England to escape being accused of witchcraft. Sir Rowley Picot, a tax collector for the king who has a personal interest in the probe, helps her along the way. Rowley could be the buddy they've been looking for, or he might be a needed enemy. The quest becomes more intense as Adelia follows her inquiry into Cambridge's dark river trails and behind the locked doors of its churches and nunneries, and the murderer gets ready to attack once again.