"The Reeve's Tale" by Margaret Frazer

"The Reeve's Tale" by Margaret Frazer
1999, Berkley Publishing Group
ISBN: 0-425-17232-5

In “The Reeve's Tale” by Margaret Frazer you are doubly gifted in the sense that you get to puzzle out a murder mystery along with the folks in the tale and you get to experience a sense of what life must have been like during medieval times. Deep thought and a sense of historical correctness accompany you while you read so that if you had never given it a second thought you now know a whole lot more about times medieval than you did before.

This is the third book I’ve read where we get to accompany Sister Frevisse as she is pulled away from her cloistered life as a nun to be involved in things worldly wicked. Dame Frevisse is sort of like a clerical Peter Falk; she observes, asks questions and when she has all her ducks in order is able to piece together a murder that has had the entire village baffled.

I’ve met characters in "The Reeve's Tale" that appear in the other books I’ve read by Margaret Frazer and even though I’ve been reading them out of sequence it does not affect the story in any way. Reading these books is relaxing for me. I am able to step out of myself for a time and just be with other folk. I recommend this book.

"The Squire's Tale" by Margaret Frazer

The Squire's Tale by Margaret Frazer. Berkley; Reissue edition (December 1, 2001) ISBN-13: 978-0425182710

The Squire's Tale by Margaret Frazer is an absolutely delightful medieval who-done-it with the starring investigator of Dame Frevisse. She's a nun and like other people in fiction serials who are good at solving crimes also appears to find herself in the midst of them time after time. As my husband says occasionally when we watch other who-done-it shows on television, "They ought to lock her up."

This is the second of Margaret Frazer's tales I've read and, as with the first, I was captivated. This is not just your everyday who-done-it. This shows into the heart of times medieval, of the 1400's. It looks at spirituality that never gets old. It looks at the place of women in the society of medieval times.

At the end I cried. It was also a love story and, for me, the mark of a "good" book is that I cry at the end.

As time goes by I expect to see more reviews for this author. You can read more about Margaret Frazer on Wikipedia.

An interesting side note to my reading of this book relates to the first one I read. I'd spotted her books some time before in the library, however, at the time I had a full load to read and there wasn't room right then to select one of her books. But, I remembered some time later that I wanted to read one of Margaret's books. Except, I couldn't find them in the library. I knew they were located in the mystery section. So, I passed back and forth looking. The problem was I also couldn't remember the name of the author. A lady joined me in the stacks looking for her own mystery and I asked her if she knew of a writer of medieval mysterys with a nun as the lead character. No, she was sorry, but she didn't know and right at that very instant my eyes looked down to the lower shelf right in front of us and I spied the books in question. I thanked her for her help. She protested that she hadn't helped me at all and I said, "No, but you did. If I hadn't stopped to speak with you I would never have found them today."