Just Finished Reading: Death and the Devil by Frank Schatzing (FP: 2003)

Cologne, Germany in 1260. As the Great Cathedral rises above the city dangerous currents sweep through the population. Crusaders return from the East with tales of horror, religious tension between the various denominations increasingly lead to argument and sometimes to violence and the burgeoning merchant classes growing richer each year long to throw off the yoke of the landed aristocracy. Things come to a head when the cathedrals architect apparently falls to his death from a high scaffold. But one man sees it is not an accident and is in turn seen by the person who pushed the great man. Jacob ‘the Fox’ is stealing apples from a near-by tree and realising what he has just witnessed runs for his life. On his trail seems to be the very angel of death who kills everyone he comes into contact with in case he has let the secret out. With nowhere left to run Jacob stumbles across Richmodis the daughter of a local dyer who hides him when capture seems inevitable. Along with her uncle Jaspar Rodenkirchen who is the dean of St Mary Magdalene’s church they set out to make the truth known before the Devil in black takes them all.

I liked many things about this book. It zipped along at a good pace and felt a lot shorter than its 550 pages. The city of Cologne was well drawn and highly believable but the thing I liked most was, as usual, the rich characterisation of the main players and in particular the young precocious Richmodis and especially her uncle Jaspar who I would have honestly liked to sit down with during an evening drinking wine in his study. I’m sure that we would have had a very pleasant time if we could have spoken each other’s language! Unfortunately one of the downsides of it being so easy to read with characters easily identifiable with is that it just felt far too modern. This was 13^th century Germany and yet the attitudes and dialogue would not have felt too much out of place in 1960 rather than 1260. Richmodis, lovely and feisty though she was, seemed very modern. Now I honestly have no idea what a 13^th century tradesman’s daughter behaved like but it just didn’t feel right. Likewise I doubt very much if someone of that time would have described someone as a ‘rebel without a cause’…. It just felt out of place and jolted me out of the story with a bit of a bump. But saying that this was a very good novel and a real page turner, if a little overly contrived, a little too convoluted and a little too long. Recommended especially if you have a few pinches of salt handy.