- Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Kensington; First THUS edition (May 1 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0758201672
- ISBN-13: 978-0758201676
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11.1 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 127 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,479,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
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 the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
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 the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good not great.,
By A Customer
This review is from: FACE DOWN UNDER THE WYCH ELM (Hardcover)
I agree with the first reviewer. There are better of this genre.
3.0 out of 5 stars
A HUMDRUM HISTORICAL MYSTERY,
This review is from: FACE DOWN UNDER THE WYCH ELM (Hardcover)
This is the first book I have read by Ms. Emerson and it was no great shakes. There are other authors of historical mysteries that are much more descriptive of daily life and produce a much richer overall mystery (see my other reviews).This novel has Susanna,Lady Appleton as detective extraordinaire. To me it seemed that Lady Appleton's serving girl Jennet did a better job of sleuthing than did Lady Appleton. Susanna, in all her piety, has to help her dead husband's mistress Constance and Constance's cousin Lucy clear their names of witchcraft before they go to the gallows. This seems pretty strange to me. Susanna also has to outmaneuver her boyfriend's sly and hateful mother.
5.0 out of 5 stars
an engrossing read,
By tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
This review is from: FACE DOWN UNDER THE WYCH ELM (Hardcover)
In my opinion, this is one of the best historical mystery series currently in publication. Susanna, Lady Appleton, is an inspiring and wonderful addition to the ranks of female investigators -- she's independent, brave and possesses a strong sense of justice. And Kathy Lynn Emerson has created a believable set of circumstances that allows for Susanna to maintain her independence and to conduct her affairs as she sees fit in Elizabethan England. Susanna is a widow and rich in her own right and (most importantly) possesses no male relatives who could try to curb and restrain her. This allows her to pretty much do as she pleases within reason. And when it is brought to her attention that one of her husband's former lovers, Constance Crane is now facing charges of murder and witchcraft, Susanna, who had in a previous adventure been similarly charged, feels that she must to do something to help the woman. From her previous experience, she knows that women are especially vulnerable to such charges because the burden of proof lies with the accused rather than with the accuser and that such accusations are quite frequently grounded in superstitious beliefs and fantasies, not on fact and tangible evidence. Not believing in witchcraft herself, Susanna realises that she must look into the deaths more closely in order to prove Constance and her cousin Lucy innocent. And she is determined to prove that the Crane cousins have been wrongfully accused. But as she starts her investigation, Susanna comes to realise that there is something quite sinister afoot, and that if her suspicions are correct, then two innocent women are being framed for some more nefarious reason than fear and superstition. But can Susanna prove the Crane cousins's innocence, and before she herself is charged with witchcraft herself or killed? This is a well written and tautly paced novel. And there are enough suspects with tenous claims to guilt to keep you guessing as to who the culprit is and what the motif could be. The pecarious fate that Constance and Lucy find themselves in is spot on. Kathy Lynn Emerson does a very good job in depicting the fear and the frustration and the anger that Constance and Lucy feel. She also does a very good job at making Elizabethan England come alive. A brilliant installment in a wonderful series. I just wish that Kathy Lynn Emerson could write two or three Susanna Appleton mysteries a year!
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