The Serpent’s Tale is just as enticing as Ariana Franklin’s first book, “The Mistress of The Art Of Death.”
Adelia is called to duty once again in aiding the KIng solve a murder. King Henry’s mistress, Rosamund, has been killed and Adelia must help prove that the murderer is not Queen Eleanor. If it is, a civil war will destroy the relative peace the country presently enjoys.
Of course, the usual litany of religious and political suspects are both for and against civil unrest.
Many have much to lose and many, much to gain.
Initially, Adelia gives nary a hoot, except for her infant daughter, Glytha, and Mansur.
At last juncture, she and Rowley Picot had chosen to go their separate ways because neither would capitulate with regard to their own futures. Rowley wanted Adelia to be his respectable wife. Adelia wanted to be a free woman.
King Henry is a more personable character now and, as a friend to Rowley, he and Adelia must help. They are working together to help the King and, once again, an unlikely entourage sets out.
Romantically, maternally, and socially things are very different and it makes for an interesting sequel. Familiarity breeds both affection and contempt, so discord abounds.
Less strife would be less fun and we can’t have that now, can we?
With Rowley and Adelia on unsure ground, a soon-to-be-weaned baby, nervy Glytha, another repulsively odiferous canine, and the tall, silent Mansur, we are in familiar territory. Adelia travels to the lair of Rosamund and encounters nuns, bodies, the devil and more.
As ever, she is intuitive, strong-willed, slightly dowdy and downright delightful. She compromises nothing and we’d put the book down if she did.
Her duty to the dead is foremost in her priorities (after her daughter) and all social ordinances be damned. She is perceived to be socially inconsequential, so is able to quietly decipher the goings-on. Being Adelia, she is in the middle of everything and this again proves to be dangerous when she butts heads with a disturbing individual or two.
When the entourage is re-routed, or should I say, abducted by Queen Eleanor and her martial law-abiding cronies, the book becomes enveloped in mystery.
With all potential evil-doers in one area, the level of angst rises.
Who is killing people?
Who is safe?
One character we have yet to suspect will, I think, return in later books. With the writing prowess we now expect, Franklin (whose real name, incidentally, is Diana Norman) twists and turns through a medieval whodunit with both moral and religious undercurrents.
Once again, a good read.
Here’s hoping more will follow!
Editor’s Note: Click here to read Mann’s review of “Mistress of the Art of Death,” also by Ariana Franklin.