Just Finished Reading: The Death Maze by Ariana Franklin (FP: 2008)

England, Winter 1172. The Rose of the World, Rosamund Clifford, is dead – poisoned. The prime suspect is lover’s wife. Her lover is Henry II, King of England. His wife is Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the most powerful women in Christian Europe. If the rumours are true, or even if they are believed by enough people, the country could quickly descend into Civil War. But if Eleanor is innocent there is something far more dangerous abroad than a woman scorned. At the heart of the kingdom are those willing to manipulate the monarchy for their own ends no matter the consequences for the country. But how to get to the bottom of things? Bishop Rowley has just an investigator in mind. Brilliant, incisive, educated, fluent in languages and knowledgeable of the way of the world – plus the mother of his illegitimate daughter. Adelia Aguilar is this and more. University educated in Seville, Italy she is a speaker for the dead, able to their story from the evidence left behind when their spirit left them. Some regard her skills with suspicion (whispering witchcraft), others regard them with distain because of her sex, and a few regard them with fear as she closes in on those who would kill to get their way and silence those who oppose them.

I will be the first to admit that 12th century England is most definitely not my ‘specialist subject’. So I had to let at least some of the historical references fly by me. I suppose that I could have Googled my way through the book checking facts or word usage as they arose but that’s hardly conducive to enjoyment of a novel. Apart from the enormous elephant in the room things seemed, at least on the face of things, reasonable enough to let it slide. My pedant alarm did go off once or twice – not too loudly – but I think it felt somewhat overwhelmed by the central character in the novel to show much more than a muted grumbling. Now (again) I’d be the first to admit that the main character Adelia is excellent, she has enough depth and more than enough humanity and human failings to make her interesting. She’s a good person whose focus is on helping people, making the world a better place and bringing up her infant daughter safely. I liked her – a lot. BUT, oh BUT, the idea that a 12th century woman – even a foreigner – would be a well-respected, university educated, wait for it, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST is SO out their (at least in my ignorant of the period opinion) as to invalidate the whole novel moving it from the historical crime section into the fantasy section. Not only was Adelia a working breathing anachronism in that regard – if that wasn’t bad enough – but she was highly sceptical of all religion (having a working knowledge of Christianity, Judaism and Islam), a Socialist (or at least highly critical of the existing social structure) and a Feminist. In other words she was an early 21st century woman transported to the late 12th century without any apparent conflict or discontinuity. What makes the whole thing worse for me though was that this was a bloody good novel. Characterisation was good down to the level of very secondary characters who had believable backstories and reasonable motivations for their actions, the setting was very well done and was easily visualised throughout, and the pace was good and never lagged or raced ahead of the narrative. It was, in essence, very well constructed and equally well executed. I honestly really enjoyed it – despite the GLARING anachronism at its very heart. If it had taken place in the 20th century I would have heaped nothing but praise on this book. However, I just can’t get over the central character being so out of place. If, in later novels, it turns out that Adelia is an amnesic time-traveller that would make PERFECT sense and would make me very happy. Recommended – kind of!