Bookraft

The Serpents Tale by Ariana Franklin presents a reader's quandry. On one hand I love the historical setting - so well researched that readers are taken back nearly 1000 years to Henry II's England during the formative years of England and lots of fascinating minutiae of the countryside. This is 80 years after the 1066 conquering of England by Henry's grandfather, William of Normandy. It is a world of Europe just emerging from the sleep of the Dark Ages and the still prevailing power of the Church vs Feudal Lords. It is a world where our heroine, Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar, medica of the renowned School of Medicine in Salerno Italy has been brought by royal request to England.

Adelia is trusted not only for medical and forensic skills but also her analytic intelligence and thus is at the Henry II's beck and call. Yes, this historical oddity and the characters it brings to the stories: Mansur, Adelia's Eunuch Arab manservant; Gyltha her lady from the Fens; Bishop Rowley of St. Albans, her star crossed lover - they are most intriguing. This is the positive side of the ledger.

On the negative side - is a percolating feminist anger that constantly bubbles up as "damn damn damn this or that masculine injustice or these centuries of patrimonial inspired anarchy" when the 7 cardinal sins seem more relevant. And in this book Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine proves to be the counter argument to all the "damns" before. Also there is inevitably one or two villains whose criminal bestiality teeters on some run amok sexual inadequacy changing cardboard villains into repetitious gargoyles. Finally, the plot twists at times depend on the common folk being to the right of dumber and dumbest.

There is a third book upcoming in the series - is the history and world of ideas going to have to deal with a Law and Order: Special Victims Unit plodding plot? This time I will read the reviews before chomping on what otherwise is a feast of history as mystery [and hopefully not yet again bestial misery incarnate].