‘The
False Virgin’ by ‘The Medieval Murderers’: Ian Morson, Bernard Knight, Philip
Gooden, Karen Maitland, Susanna Gregory and Simon Beaufort.
Published
by Simon & Schuster,
16 June 2014.
ISBN: 978-1471114335
Beornwyn, daughter of a local
chieftain, is seemingly murdered in a Viking raid. Soon stories are told of her
sainthood, and her bones are honoured as those of a virgin martyr – but they
bring harm on all who possess them through the centuries ...
This
clever collaboration brings together six historical crime novelists. The
Prologue tells the original story of Beornwyn; it’s followed by five short
stories, each set in a different period, but linked by the continuing travels
of Beornwyn’s relics. The Epilogue rounds off with a modern story. Each author
is therefore free to create their own characters – Ian Morsen uses his series
detective, Nick Zuliani, with his feisty daughter as side-kick, and Philip
Gooden lets Chaucer investigate a murder. The authors can also work in their
own period, and one of the delights of this book was the way each time and
place came alive to the reader: the Anglo-Saxon world, beset by Viking raids,
the Welsh marches in 1200, a Venetian-ruled Greek island, John of Gaunt’s
London home in the time of Chaucer, and the start of Henry VIII’s destruction
of the churches. The stories themselves were each a good read with a neatly
clued who-dunnit.
An
enjoyable set of historical mysteries neatly woven around a central theme.
------
Reviewer:
Marsali Taylor
The
Medieval Murderers, are,
see above left to right, Bernard
Knight, Philip Gooden, Michael Jecks, Susanna Gregory, Karen Maitland and Ian
Morson,.
Bernard
Knight was born 3 May 1931. He is a British forensic
pathologist and writer. He became a Home Office pathplogist in 1965 and was appointed Professor of Forensic Pathology, University of Wales
College of Medicine, in 1980.
Philip
Gooden writes
both fiction and non-fiction. His historical novels include the Nick Revill
series, set in Elizabethan London, and a Victorian sequence, the most recent
title for which is The Durham Deception. Philip Gooden also writes books on
language, including Who’s Whose? and Faux Pas?, which won the English Speaking
Union award for the best English Language book of 2006. He was chairman of the
Crime Writers’ Association in 2007-8.
Michael
Jecks is the author of
thirty-two novels in his Templar series, all published by Headline and Simon
& Schuster. A past chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association, he is also a
founder of the Historical Writers’ Association and Medieval Murderers. He is a
regular speaker at libraries and festivals worldwide. He is currently working
on the final novel in his Hundred Years War trilogy.
Simon
Beaufort is the pseudonym of Susanna Gregory and Beau Riffenburgh when
they write jointly. Together they have written eight Geoffrey Mappestone novels
and contributed to several Medieval Murderer books. Recently, they have
ventured into more modern times The Nimrod Murders is set in
early 20th century London, and The Murder House takes place
in 21st century Bristol.
Susanna
Gregory
was raised in Bristol, she early on became familiar with its great medieval
history. After graduating from university, she spent three years in Leeds, as
an officer in the West Yorkshire Police, where she was exposed to numerous
unpleasant practices and grisly details, which have contributed to her
characters and plots. Upon leaving the police, she conducted post-graduate
studies at the University of Durham before earning a PhD at the University of
Cambridge. Her primary post-doctoral research has investigated environmental
contamination in the world’s seal population by looking at the build-up of
pollutants – particularly heavy metals – in the teeth and bones of different
seal species. She has also done fieldwork with whales and walruses, and has
spent seventeen field seasons working with marine mammals in the Arctic or
Antarctic, as well as many years lecturing on Antarctic tourist ships. At the
undergraduate and graduate level, she has taught and supervised research in
comparative anatomy and biological anthropology. She has also served as an
environmental consultant, including working on the Greenpeace Climate Change
Database.
She
now lives in a hamlet in southwest Wales with her husband Beau Riffenburgh, who
is also a writer, see Simon Beaufort.
Karen
Maitland was born 1st January 1956. She is a
British author of medieval thriller fiction. Maitland has an honours degree in
Human Communication and doctorate in Psycholinguistics.Karen has now recently
moved to the lovely county of Devon, having lived for a number of years in
the beautiful medieval city of Lincoln, which together with the wild
salt-marshes of Norfolk, provide great inspiration for her novels.
Ian
Morson
was born in 1947 in Derby. He is the author of the Oxford based Falconer series.
Marsali Taylor grew up near Edinburgh, and came to Shetland as a
newly-qualified teacher. She is currently a part-time teacher on Shetland's
scenic west side, living with her husband and two Shetland ponies. Marsali is a
qualified STGA tourist-guide who is fascinated by history, and has published
plays in Shetland's distinctive dialect, as well as a history of women's
suffrage in Shetland. She's also a keen sailor who enjoys exploring in her own
8m yacht, and an active member of her local drama group. Marsali also does a regular monthly column
for the Mystery People e-zine.
Published
by Quercus, 
