|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
Book Description
In harvest time of 1436, Joliffe's troupe leader falls, leaving his players to find what work they can while he recovers. Joliffe finds work in a hospital where he unfortunately has to deal with Mistress Cisily Thorncoffyn, a widow expecting to be endlessly waited on for her mostly imaginary ailments.
When patients begin mysteriously dying, Mistress Thorncoffyn loudly insists that someone is trying to kill her. With so many suspects wishing her ill, if not outright dead, Joliffe has no choice but to find out whose anger has turned to murderous hatred and whether-having missed their target-they mean to try again...
When patients begin mysteriously dying, Mistress Thorncoffyn loudly insists that someone is trying to kill her. With so many suspects wishing her ill, if not outright dead, Joliffe has no choice but to find out whose anger has turned to murderous hatred and whether-having missed their target-they mean to try again...
About the Author
Margaret Frazer was a finalist for an Edgar Award for Best Original Paperback for both The Servant’s Tale and The Prioress’ Tale. The Sister Frevisse series includes The Novice’s Tale, The Servant’s Tale, The Outlaw’s Tale, The Bishop’s Tale, The Boy’s Tale, The Murderer’s Tale, The Prioress’ Tale, The Maiden’s Tale, The Reeve’s Tale, and The Squire’s Tale. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.ca
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
"A Play of Piety": Joliffe Comes Home Again, Dec 12 2010
By KmVictorian - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: A Play of Piety (Paperback)
Margaret Frazer has done it again--another well researched medieval mystery in a most unusual setting. Joliffe the player has come home from his stint as a spy in Normandy to become a kind of hospital orderly in rural England. He still bears the scars and regrets of his experiences abroad, of having learned how to kill an enemy and of having actually done so. A man of peace, Joliffe suffers from terrible nightmares and feelings of guilt. (Today we might say that he has post-traumatic stress disorder.)Fortunately Joliffe is here reunited with his friends the players, and with fatherly Bassett, the head of the theatrical company. Joliffe has bed-pots to empty, elderly patients to wait on, and a grimly depicted mystery to solve while the little company waits for Bassett to recover from a disabling attack of arthritis.
The arduous physical tasks, as well as the intrigue, combine to occupy Joliffe's mind and to begin the psychological healing that he sorely needs. At the book's end, as the players take to the road again, Ms. Frazer tells us that Joliffe is contented to be back in his old life and back on the road.
My only regret is that I really liked Joliffe as a spy (in "A Play of Treachery"). In "A Play of Piety" I miss the contacts and relationships that Joliffe had with bishops and nobles in France, the new things he was learning, and the double life he was living in order to survive. I hope that Bishop Beaufort is not done with Joliffe's services, and that Joliffe might even go abroad again in the future.
With that said, I give "A Play of Piety" five stars for its interesting plot development, flowing descriptions and authentic background information, as well as its unusually nasty villains.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
More than just a story., Jan 17 2011
By Carl McIntyre - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Play of Piety (Paperback)
Margaret Frazer brings so much more than just a single mistery to her books. To be able to include several story levels that carry through the whole series is an accomplishment that few authors even care to try at one level. Only by reading the whole series over can you separate out the multiple stories. The richness of history at a level that allows the reader to not only identify with the characters doing manual labor but also with the gentry and ruling classes. This is an exceptional series along with the "Frevisse" series.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
So much fun to spend time in medieval England with a traveling player, Jan 2 2011
By K. Levin - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
I think Margaret Frazer's greatest strength is in drawing a scene that let's you really sink into the atmosphere of medieval England. I love the way she banishes unfair mischaracterizations and tries to help the modern reader slip into the minds of characters so very far away in time (and often space!)I found this novel a bit less urgent than many of her others. Oh, there was a murder, but there wasn't quite the sense that our beloved protagonist was really at risk this time. It felt like Joliffe was more a witness than a participant, though that fit well enough with his personal needs at this point in his "life"... That said, I didn't regret a minute of my time spent reading this book. I prefer character development to plot sometimes in a good series like this one.
I enjoy historical re-enactment in the SCA, and medieval healing is a related side hobby, so the details of hospital life were really interesting to me. It rang pretty true, except, perhaps, for the presence of the "defective" children. I didn't mind them being there, but the likely autism of Heinrich felt very modern.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
