The Sempster's Tale
by Margaret Frazer

(Berkley Publishing Group)

The latest entry in Frazer’s Dame Frevisse Medieval Mystery series has our crime fighting nun in London. On business for her cousin, she becomes the guest at the house of a merchant and meets Daved Weir, a mysterious foreigner with two secrets—his lover, the seamstress Anne Blakhall, and his Jewish identity. The latter is the more dangerous, as all Jews had been expelled from England a hundred years before, and discovery could mean death. The murder of a friend’s son, coinciding with Jack Cade’s march to London against Henry VI, produce a siege-like atmosphere in the house, where Frevisse is all but captive.

Although the list of both suspects and clues is brief, this is one of the more lively entries in Frazer’s series (The Novice’s Tale, The Squire’s Tale, etc.). She provides her usual vivid portrait of medieval England, this time the bustling city, and the plot is sweetened by the strong and sympathetic characters of the lovers. Daved, in particular, is memorable. One of the quandaries in historical fiction is how to make the hero or heroine true to their time without being repulsive to readers for their prejudices. In this case Frazer deftly side-steps the issue by having the devoutly Christian Frevisse look on Daved as a “lost soul”, but one worthy of toleration and even respect.

- Joel Van Valin