>A MEDIEVAL MYSTERY< MARIANA IN PARIS - Lady Marian MacElpin is now an unofficial student at the university in Paris: to be admitted to lectures, she has to pretend to be a man. But it is to her that the other students turn when one is charged with the murder of his rich uncle, a miser and reputed alchemist. She quickly discovers that the murder (and a second related murder) had their roots far away on the island of Ibiza eighteen years before, and involve not only alchemy and the tarot and (of course, with Mariana there) witchcraft (one of the witches, known as La Fille d'Or, turns out to have been for years the secret mistress of Charles VI, King of France), but also a one-armed Albanian "king" of the Paris underworld, and such well-known historical figures as Christine de Pisan (then a girl of thirteen), and Nicolas Flamel, the alchemist (later Grand Master of the outlawed Prieuré de Sion).
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By guymary
Jan 11, 2006
"Thirteen-Card Spread James Munro's exciting medieval mystery" James Munro's "Thirteen-Card Spread" is an astonishing book. Enthralling, exciting and sometimes shocking with its fourteenth-century dungeons and cruelty, it is a detective novel shrouded in mystery. Tarot cards, astrology and alchemy are all central to the book, which, while situated in medieval Paris, has many references to the Moorish life of the south of Spain. Munro's research, his knowledge and use of historical detail, are thorough, as is his description of fourteenth-century Paris. Writing in the first person through the eyes of the beautiful young Dona Mariana (the "detective" heroine) is a challenge for a twenty-first-century man in his sixties, but it is done intelligently and with sensitivity, and in a surprisingly realisitic way with humorous touches in attitudes and side-thoughts. Full marks for a 300 page read which is very difficult to put down. Mary Tordeur
