Just Finished Reading: Hill of Bones by The Medieval Murderers [Karen Maitland, Susanna Gregory, Bernard Knight, Philip Gooden and Ian Morson] (FP: 2011)
It all started (as many things do in England) with King Arthur. Joined by warriors, as well as a few well intentioned boys, he made a stand on Badon Hill and beat back the Saxon horde to usher in a period of peace and prosperity before the deluge submerged Celtic Britain once and for all. As centuries passed and names changed Badon Hill became Solsbury Hill outside the ancient city of Bath but its fate continued to be soaked in the blood of the guilty and the innocent from the time of myths to the present. Treasure is stolen and lost again. Thieves flee in triumph only to choke on their own blood. Answers to the mysteries of the Cosmos are promised to those with the beauty to demand it… and then there are Mummies, there are always Mummies.
This was rather a strange one picked up (as they often are) on a whim. Now I’m a sucker for a bit of historical crime writing so this looked the charm. Authored not by one mystery writer but by five of them working in tandem to produce a series of (rather loosely) connected tales with a common geographical location this could have been quite something. Unfortunately (as is all too often the case with collections of short stories) the mini-novellas presented were of variable quality and the links between them proved tenuous indeed. There were most definitely moments of interest. Some of the characters were very well drawn and I never found myself skimming or skipped ahead (or even sighing) but the overall affect lacked….. Something. It just didn’t gel (at least with me) so I found myself drifting through the prose – moderately entertained if not wholly engaged until the reasonably laid out and moderately amusing epilogue. The team have produced at least six other collaborative works so they’re obviously selling books to a willing audience. But I for one will not be joining them. Reasonable but there’s much better out there no doubt. So, not exactly a shining example of the genre to start off my Historical Crime selection…. But there are nine more yet to come!
5 comments:
That's a good title, though!
I would think that historical mysteries set so long ago would have to be well executed or else they would not work so well. With so many hands in the pot, quality consistently might be difficult to achieve.
i'd read a historical mystery with the Venerable Bede as Sherlock; actually if i knew anything about writing i'd write one (hint, hint)
I can see why you would be attracted to this. That is quite a bunch of heavyweight historical authors. It sounds to me like they enjoy nerding out in their area of expertize.
@ Stephen: Oh, I look out for good titles!
@ Brian: I definitely thought of 'too many cooks' more than once. Different sections are written by different authors (or collaborators) but the whole process felt a little hit/miss/forced. Good idea though.
@ Mudpuddle: There's quite a few Medieval detectives out there [grin]. Quite a few in the Roman empire too!
@ Judy: I only knew a few of the names but that was part of the pull. I think I need to look out for some of their stand alone novels - although I've read at least one by Karen Maitland.
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