Description:

The Vale of Cedars, or The Martyr by the British Sephardic author Grace Aguilar is a historical novel set in Mediaeval Spain. The main character, the crypto-Jewish Donna Marie Henriquez, falls in love with the Englishman Arthur Stanley, but must marry Don Ferdinand Morales -- the man within her faith her family had promised her to. Later, Don Ferdinand is found killed, and Arthur Stanley is brought before the court as the main suspect. The story takes a complicated turn when Donna Marie is arrested by the Spanish Inquisition and suspicion arises that Arthur Stanley was framed....