Rough Collier: A Gil Cunningham Murder Mystery [Hardcover]

In 1493 in the peat bogs of Belstane Parish in Central Lanarkshire, a corpse has been uncovered. No one knows how long the body laid in the ooze, but many assume murder because of the severe injury to the skull and slash across the throat.

The Beltane Parish chaplain to Sir James, David Fleming accuses the local herbalist and healer "Beattie" Lithgo of committing the crime; his evidence is based on his belief she practices witchcraft and the body is that of a missing person Thomas Murray. The Archbishop of nearby Glasgow sends his Quaestor Gil Cunningham to investigate. Gil is accompanied by his new wife Alys; they quickly conclude the victim was killed quite a long time ago and is not Thomas. As the case spins into a matriarchal family while more corpses are found, the constable and his spouse feel they are stuck in the bog.

Although extremely well written and exciting, this medieval police procedural takes serious time and place so is filled with Scottish colloquiums that can make it a bit difficult to follow dialogue. Once the reader adjusts to the discussions, fans will find a terrific whodunit as the married detectives struggle with prejudice and fear inside of a strong fifteenth century mystery

Harriet Klausner

I have read a number of murder mysteries set in early England, Candace Robb's Owen Archer The Cross Legged Knight (Owen Archer Mysteries 08) and Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael A Morbid Taste for Bones being my favorites, though Michael Jecks' Knights Templar mysteries A Moorland Hanging (Knights Templar Mysteries (Avon)) is also quite good, though a little darker. Pat McIntosh's "The Rough Collier," a member of the Gil Cunningham series, set in Early Scotland is an excellent addition to this genus of the murder mystery family.

The characters are very well rounded, Gil and his wife are a lovely pair, and Gil's mother, the widowed Eigida, is a likable person. The ambiance is Scotland during the 15th century, the period of Henry VIII in England. The author creates her setting more by way of local color, dialect, period behavior and technology than by frequent allusions to historical characters and events, which would probably be poorly known in the rural area where the action takes place. While making some comments on national and international news, she does so only in passing, which keeps the reader focused on the immediate local events while putting them into perspective and timeframe. This very subtle technique of orienting the reader keeps them fully grounded in the fact that local events are more important to their participants and that the behavior of early people was much like our own, though limited by slower transportation, a more limited technology, and--with science only just beginning to take form--grounded more in religion and superstition than in facts as we know them. More than anything it is the attempt to be fair and to place events on factual footing that makes these people so much like us. While there are those who might be overly credulous and superstitious, accusing others with little or no evidence, there are people just like them in our own world.

The opening is riveting, especially for anyone who has read anything about the "bog bodies" of Europe, since the book begins with the discovery of what is probably a sacrificial victim buried in a swampy lake that gradually became the peat bog from which the characters cut their fuel. The murder itself is discovered very incidentally to that and the mystery devolves upon the discovery of the missing man mistakenly believed to have been the bog body.

Unlike many of this type of novel, there is far less dependence on what modern readers believe to be the violent lives of the middle ages. This is not a swashbuckler by any means. The lives of the people are primarily governed by the day to day need to survive, not by the huge events of history books. The simplicity of the average individual, the heavy labor required of them, the hierarchy of the tail end of the feudal era, and religious and superstitious beliefs are at the core of the story, not the deeds and misdeeds of the political elite.

Since some of the characters are healers and the author describes some of the afflictions well, I particularly enjoyed diagnosing a case of diabetes from what I know of the symptoms--though I suspect a bit of hepato-renal syndrome working there too. The clues are well distributed, and though clear are not necessarily easily picked out, though I knew who the culprit was well before the dénouement.

While the mystery entertained me, it was primarily the interactions of the various characters, even the ancillary ones, that I liked most. I enjoyed spending time with them and will probably read another of the series.

I love these books and want to know when or if there will be any more. I keep checking looking for a new one. I found Gil and his life so interesting and such a pleasure to read.

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