One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.

The anatomist Adelia Aguilar accompanies a young Princess Joanna, daughter of Henry II, and her huge entourage on a thousand mile, corpse-filled journey across Europe to marry the King of Sicily.  It’s the fourth in an excellent medieval detective series and sadly the last as the author recently died.

The Lovereading view...

Another fabulous historical mystery featuring Adelia Aguilar from The Mistress of the Art of Death series. Franklin always provides plenty of rich historical detail as well as believable, scandalous, roguish characters. Brilliant.

Mistress of the Art of Death series:
1. The Mistress of the Art of Death
2. The Death Maze
3. Relics of the Dead
4. The Assassin's Prayer

Comparison: Alys Clare, Susanna Gregory, Rory Clements
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Synopsis

Adelia Aguilar is to accompany 10-year-old Princess Joanna on her thousand-mile journey to marry the King of Sicily. They must take with them the legendary sword Excalibur. And so Adelia sets sail with the golden princess and her lavish procession of nobles, musicians, servants, laundresses, grooms, luggage and treasure. But when members of the procession begin to die and it looks as though Adelia is to blame, there are dangerous accusations of witchcraft. Meanwhile one traveller, armed with a brilliant disguise and a personal vendetta, has been watching Adelia all too closely. He wants Adelia dead ...but he wants her to suffer first.

About the Author

Ariana Franklin was born in Devon and, like her father, became a journalist. Having invaded Wales dressed in combat uniform with the Royal Marines for one of their military exercises, accompanied the Queen on a royal visit, missed her own twenty-first birthday party because she had to cover a murder, she married, almost inevitably, another journalist. At this point she decided that staying married was a good idea so she abandoned her career in national newspapers and settled down in the country to bring up two daughters, study medieval history and write. Ariana was the author of the acclaimed, award-winning Mistress of the Art of Death series. She passed away in 2011.   Author photo © Mary Jane Russell More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation