REVIEW: ‘The Serpent’s Tale’ by Ariana Franklin

The Serpent’s Tale (2008) by Ari­ana Franklin is the follow-up to last year’s Mis­tress of the Art of Death. The third per­son nar­ra­tive fol­lows foren­sic inves­ti­ga­tor Dr. Adelia Aguilar, whose job it is to unearth the clues that only “the mis­tress of the art of death” can decipher.

The sto­ries are set in medieval times where women doc­tors are viewed as witches thus cre­at­ing the need for arti­fice in order for Adelia to do her job. Her Ara­bic manser­vant, Mansur, must pre­tend to be the “doc­tor” and she as his trans­lat­ing “assis­tant” in order for her to cir­cum­vent trou­ble with the church and the label of “heretic.”

In the last book Adelia was sent to help King Henry II restore order after three chil­dren were found mur­dered in Cam­bridge and the town was blam­ing the Jews. After her suc­cess of solv­ing that crime, King Henry II charms her into stay­ing. After all, his cousin, the King of Sicily, loaned her out to help him rec­on­cile his tur­bu­lent rela­tion­ship with the church and help him regain con­trol of the pop­u­lace. Adelia didn’t plan on stay­ing long in this “back­ward think­ing coun­try” but King Henry suc­cess­fully per­suades her to stay.

In “The Serpent’s Tale”, almost two years have passed and Adelia is now a sin­gle mother, liv­ing out in the fen­lands with her friend, Gyltha. Her ex-lover and cur­rent Bishop of St. Albans, Row­ley Picot needs her assis­tance and sum­mons her in the name of the King. King Henry II’s favorite mis­tress, Fair Rosamund has been poi­soned and the King is point­ing the fin­ger at his estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Picot moves with urgency in unrav­el­ing the cul­prit behind Rosamund’s mur­der because of the polit­i­cal impli­ca­tions this may lead to: civil war.

The author’s addi­tion of Rosamund Clif­ford and the rumors that sur­rounded her death made for a sus­pense­ful read. Very lit­tle is known about her life (aside from folk­lore) only that she was beau­ti­ful and that she had a long rela­tion­ship with one of England’s most pow­er­ful men. Speak­ing of which, I like how the author has made King Henry II into this larger than life char­ac­ter slash hero who is very charis­matic and pow­er­ful rather than the vil­lain he is por­trayed in his­tory for his role in the indi­rect death of Thomas à Becket. While his scenes are few, they are mem­o­rable and my favorite.

There’s a rea­son why King Henry won’t let Adelia leave: she’s his secret weapon in death inves­ti­ga­tion and a woman far ahead of her time. IOW, no one else has her skill set. How­ever, the atti­tude towards women in medieval Eng­land is always a shock to Adelia. She grew up with lib­eral par­ents in Sicily and was trained in Salerno which was a for­ward think­ing insti­tu­tion of it’s time in allow­ing women to train as doc­tors. Adelia is always hav­ing to watch her step and a few times she slips up but she under­stands the pre­car­i­ous slope she climbs and she has added vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, for one, her 18 month old daughter.

The “Art of Death” series has enough foren­sic detail in it to attract read­ers who enjoy foren­sic sus­pense nov­els from Karin Slaugh­ter to Patri­cia Cromwell except the sto­ries are set in medieval Eng­land. The mys­ter­ies are mod­er­ately chal­leng­ing. I’ve heard com­plaints about the author’s use of anachro­nis­tic ter­mi­nol­ogy. The author explains why she chooses to use mod­ern ter­mi­nol­ogy in cer­tain instances and it’s sim­ple: for ease of read­ing. I had no prob­lem with that but your mileage may vary. In the end, how­ever, her char­ac­ters are true to their time period and as usual she does a mar­velous job of recre­at­ing that period well.

This is another re-posted review as the orig­i­nal review sits at Sybil’s web­site (my blog was down at the time). While the two nov­els can stand alone, read­ers will miss out on the dynam­ics that has shaped Row­ley and Adelia’s rela­tion­ship and cer­tain events that are men­tioned in The Serpent’s Tale are some­what related to what hap­pened in the pre­vi­ous book. The series is a duet thus far so it is easy to catch up on. Just do your­self a favor and read the first book, Mis­tress of the Art of Death. You’ll find another series and another hero­ine to cheer for and yes, there’s a nice roman­tic sub­plot but read­ers like me view that as an added bonus. My grade, A.

*Both books are avail­able in ebook. The Serpent’s Tale is cur­rently hard­cover and the paper­back release is slated for Feb 2009. The author is cur­rently work­ing on another unti­tled entry in the “Art of Death” series.

For Fur­ther Reading

• ‘Grave Goods’ by Ari­ana Franklin (Mis­tress of the Art of Death Series)
• REVIEW: Mis­tress of the Art of Death by Ari­ana Franklin
• REVIEW: Blood Royal by Diana Norman
• Give­away: Grave Goods (Mis­tress of the Art of Death) by Ari­ana Franklin
• REVIEW: City of Shad­ows by Ari­ana Franklin
• REVIEW: A Catch of Con­se­quence by Diana Norman
• REVIEW: The Vizard Mask by Diana Norman
• REVIEW: Tak­ing Lib­er­ties by Diana Norman

Tagged as: Ariana Franklin, Diana Norman, forensic investigation, medieval England, Salerno doctors, women doctors