grave goods

I have such a book crush on the Ariana Franklin series featuring medieval lady doctor Adelia Aguilar. I love these books. In the third story, "Grave Goods", Adelia is traveling with her friend Emma and is summoned by Henry II to examine the bones from two skeletons found in a crevasse near Glastonbury. Rumor has it that they might be the bones of Arthur and Guinevere. Henry wants an answer and Adelia is soon wrapped up in not only a mystery involving the legendary king, but also several other unexplained events.

This was book number 96 for me this year. Yeah!! 

Not sure what this week will bring. I have a hair cut scheduled for today. A lunch scheduled for Thursday. A beginning band concert to attend that same day. No soccer for the girls as it is finals week and the coaches took pity on them. Plus, the weather is supposed to be brutally cold here....nightly lows in the teens just isn't normal for this region. Brrrrr.

We watched a good portion of 30 Rock's first season last night via Netflix. Hilarious. Had us all laughing.
So, as we slide into the Christmas holidays.....lots of random things going on. Sounds good to me!

The Serpent's Tale

I read the second book in the Ariana Frankling medieval mystery series over the weekend. It was every bit as good as the first one. Yay. One of the things I need to do today is put holds on books 3 and 4 and have them sent from our neighboring library. This story featured Queen Eleanor, and while I didn't particularly care for her personality in this novel, it was fun to see the author's take on one of my favorite queens.

Now a mother, Adelia is happy living in the Fens and is somewhat content being away from her lover, Rowley Picot, the current Bishop of St. Albans.  He is sent to summon her to yet another convent to investigate yet another murder, but this time it is the 'fair' Rosemund, Henry II's mistress.  She's been poisoned and all attempts made to make it look like this deed was done at Eleanor's behest.  But, all is not as it seems, and as winter sets in and the Thames freezes, the action heats up and the bodies pile up.

Good stuff.

On another note, I'm anxious to get a recipe for potato leek soup. We attended the Advent Lessons and Carols program last night at church and the soup supper afterwards. Another mom I know, made the soup from a recipe shared by the new associate priest, who happens to be a trained chef. It was delicious...even the kids loved it. Cream. White Wine. Potatoes, Leeks. What is not to love??

Okay off to begin a very busy week. I have a lot to do and am determined to accomplish a lot. Happy Monday.

mistress of the art of death

I find the best treasures in our donation piles at the library. A couple of weeks ago, a cover featuring a woman standing over a skull caught my eye.  When I realized it was a medieval mystery, the book came home with me.  Since then I've learned this title is the first in a series.  Of course our library doesn't own the series, but our neighboring town's library does and I've already requested the second book be sent over.

Ariana Franklin's heroine is a female doctor, a foundling raised by a Jewish doctor and his Christian wife. Adelia, trained at her father's side, becomes quite adept at 'reading' the dead.  Medieval forensics was based mostly on observations and intuition, but Adelia shows us that a whole lot can be told with careful looking.  She is sent from Sicily by King William to Henry II's England to help solve a string of murders, the victims all children in Cambridge.  Of course the Jews have been blamed and as the entire town's Jewish population is hiding behind the castle walls, their money making enterprises have now put a major crimp in the financial dealings of that region. Hence the king's interest and his request to borrow a 'death reader' from the medical school in Salerno.

Franklin does a great job with providing an interesting assortment of characters, some wonderful settings and plenty of action.

Well done.