Summary
Summary
As the fourteenth century comes to a close, York seethes on the brink of civil war--and young widow Kate Clifford, struggling to keep her businesses afloat, realizes that her mother is harboring a dangerous secret . . .
1399. York is preparing for civil war, teeming with knights and their armed retainers summoned for the city's defense. Henry of Lancaster is rumored to have landed on the northeast coast of England, not so far from York, intent on reclaiming his inheritance--an inheritance which his cousin, King Richard, has declared forfeit.
With the city unsettled and rife with rumors, Eleanor Clifford's abrupt return to York upon the mysterious death of her husband in Strasbourg is met with suspicion in the city. Her daughter Kate is determined to keep her distance, but it will not be easy--Eleanor has settled next door with the intention of establishing a house of beguines, or poor sisters. When one of the beguines is set upon in the night by an intruder, Kate knows that for the sake of her own reputation and the safety of her young wards she must investigate.
From the first, Eleanor is clearly frightened yet maintains a stubborn silence. The brutal murder of one of Eleanor's servants leads Kate to suspect that her mother's troubles have followed her from Strasbourg. Is she secretly involved in the political upheaval? When one of her wards is frightened by a too-curious stranger, Kate is desperate to draw her mother out of her silence before tragedy strikes her own household.
Author Notes
Candace Robb lives in Seattle, Washington.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lovers of Shakespeare's Richard II will find Robb's intricate sequel to 2016's The Service of the Dead a particular treat, as it charts the course of Richard's downfall and his cousin Henry of Bolingbroke's rise through the fears and uncertainties of the residents of the city of York in July 1399. These anxieties are worsened by a series of strange deaths connected to the extended family of Kate Clifford, a fierce young widow struggling to cope with not only her own household of jostling servants and the recently arrived illegitimate children of her late husband but also the return of her quarrelsome mother, Eleanor, from Strasbourg with religious women in tow. The character of Clifford is compelling and finely drawn, and for those readers who are patient enough to manage an unusually large number of secondary characters, the answers to a series of mysteries, starting with the reason for an intruder's attack on a beguine (or poor sister) in the middle of the night, are highly satisfying. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
As King Richard II and his cousin Henry of Lancaster jostle for power, a widow caught between them struggles to support her family.The year 1399 finds York widow Kate Clifford (The Service of the Dead, 2016) raising three children not her own. When her husband left her deep in debt, she took in his two bastard children; the third is the daughter of her eldest brother. All her brothers, including her twin, who remains always with her in her mind, were killed in a border feud that sent her mother, Eleanor, fleeing to Strasbourg with her second husband, Ulrich Smit. Now widowed again, Eleanor has returned, newly religious, with three companions to help set up a beguine house, a place where women lead a life of devotion but are not bound by vows. One night, Kate's household is awakened by the baying of her wolfhounds, Lille and Ghent, signaling danger next door at the house her mother is leasing. Sister Dina is not in her room, and there's a great deal of blood. York is full of armed men supposedly protecting the city from Henry, but their fealty to the unpopular king is uncertain. Kate can count on her loyal servants, Jennet and Berend, but no one else. Her mother is obviously hiding a secret, her brother-in-law is eager for her to remarry so he can get the business her husband left her, and her powerful uncle seems to support her but has hidden plans of his own. The traumatized Dina is eventually found, but the maidservant Nan, whose lover may have been involved, vanishes. Despite the lies that greet her every question, Kate is determined to find the truth and preserve her family from danger. The heroine's second adventure, a complicated mystery set against the turmoil that led to the War of the Roses, is most likely to appeal to fans of serious historical intrigue. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The widow Kate Clifford of York continues her investigations in this sequel to The Service of the Dead (2016). Henry of Lancaster has arrived in England to wrest the throne from his cousin Richard, and York is a hotbed of political factions and rumors. When violence erupts in the newly opened beguine house (a women's religious community) and people start disappearing, Kate and her wolfhounds go hunting. Unfortunately, Kate spends so much time signaling her dogs, and shushing her dead brother's voice in her head, that she overlooks clues, relies on misinformed assumptions, and annoyingly slows the story's rhythm. As in her previous mysteries, Robb is an ace at re-creating the medieval setting, but she's less deft with character development and pacing. In this multistranded mystery, with many names for readers to keep track of, and too much speculation between characters in conversations, the plot sometimes runs amok. Loyal fans will want to keep up, but others may choose to give this one a pass.--Baker, Jen Copyright 2010 Booklist