Face Down Under The Wych Elm [Mass Market Paperback]

Kathy Lynn Emerson's series of Elizabethan mysteries featuring Susanna, Lady Appleton, just keeps getting better. In this, her fifth outing, the widowed Lady Appleton is enjoying the attentions of a new suitor when she learns that Constance Crane, her late husband's mistress, and Crane's elderly cousin, a former nun, have been jailed for the heinous crime of "bewitching" two men to death. Showing more nobility than good sense, perhaps, Susannah puts the ill- will of the past behind her and vows to help the two imprisoned gentlewomen, who will be executed if convicted.

It's soon clear to Susanna, herself an herbalist of some renown, that the victims died of poison, not witchcraft. With the help of her housekeeper, she solves the crime and names the villain. No big surprises are in store for the careful reader, but clues and solutions aren't the important thing about these clever, well-researched novels. Emerson has a deft hand with the details of the customs and costumes of the Elizabethan era, and brings history to life with a light touch. Lady Appleton gets more interesting as she gets older, and her autonomy and audacity will win the reader's heart. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

This workmanlike historical of witchcraft, murder and greed, the fifth in the series (after Face Down Beneath the Eleanor Cross), begins slowly but ends with an exciting rush. Shortly after Elizabeth I returns her realm to Protestantism from Mary I's brief period of Catholicism, witches are blamed for strange happenings, especially deaths. One "witch" accused of murder is Constance Crane, who was once the mistress of Sir Robert Appleton, the late husband of our sleuthing heroine, Susanna, Lady Appleton. Constance writes Susanna for help, but the message goes astray. Not until Susanna arrives at Maidstone's Assizes with her lover and suitor, Nick Baldwin, does she learn that Constance is in trouble. Susanna immediately suspects the victim was poisoned, but the only way she can save Constance from hanging is to find the true killer. Aided by Nick and by her servant and companion, the faithful Jennet, Susanna uncovers a plot to gain vast wealth through a forgotten will and the canceled vow of a former nun. While Emerson creates an Elizabethan atmosphere by using archaic words (mazer, morphew, etc.) and describing plants and herbal remedies, her work isn't in the same league as that of such seasoned historical writers as Michael Jecks and Peter Tremayne. It's too easy to substitute drug trafficking for witchcraft, cell phones for messengers and cars for horses to imagine the story as a contemporary thriller. (Dec. 7)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Susanna, Lady Appleton, finds freedom in widowhood and cannot bring herself to accept the marriage proposal of Nick Baldwin, who hopes she will accompany him to Hamburg, where his shipping business will take him for a year and more. It isn't just fear of commitment that keeps Susanna from accepting Nick's proposal; she also has a paralyzing fear of the sea. Distracting her from these concerns are the accusations of murder by witchcraft that have been lodged against a woman Susanna knows--a former mistress of her late husband's. The sensational pamphlets written and circulated about witchcraft trials, the persecution of Catholics and the seizure of church property, and the uses of herbs and herb lore in sixteenth-century England form the lattice for another intriguing story of the resourceful Susanna and her equally plucky servant and friend, Jennet. Convinced that the murders have their source in greed and lust rather than witchcraft, Susanna teases out the truth as she faces her fears. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Face Down Under the Wych Elm AUTHOR: Emerson, Kathy Lynn DESCRIPTION: Her roguish husband now dead, Lady Appleton, travels with a new suitor to Maidstone. While there, she learns that two gentlewomen, Constance Crane and her elderly cousin Lucy, are being jailed for bewitching two men to death-and face execution if convicted. Although Constance happens to be a former mistress of Robert, Susanna puts the past to rest and vows to help. Using her vast knowledge of herbs-and the talents of her gossiping housekeeper-Lady Appleton soon deduces that the deaths are the work of a mysterious poisoner. But can she root out the killer before Constance and Lucy face the gallows-and before Susanna`s own life is threatened? Emerson once again "makes the early stages of the reign of Elizabeth I come gloriously to life" (The Midwest Book Review) in the fifth installment of this sparkling series.AUTHORBIO: Kathy Lynn Emerson lives in Wilton, Maine. Face Down Under the Wych Elm is the fifth book in the Susanna, Lady Appleton, series.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Kathy Lynn Emerson lives in Wilton, Maine. Face Down Under the Wych Elm is the fifth book in the Susanna, Lady Appleton, series. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.