The Serpent's Tale

Book No: 23
Title: The Serpent’s Tale
Author: Arianna Franklin
Genre: Historical Mystery
Completed: 5/26/09
No. of Pages: 371
Rating: 3.5/5*****

The Serpent’s Tale returns us to 12th century England and all of the plotting and intrigues of Henry II and his estranged wife Eleanor of Aquitaine. Adelia Aguilar, introduced to readers as The Mistress of the Art of Death in the first book in the series, is living a quiet life in the fens when she is once again summoned by the King to employ her skills to learn who has murdered his mistress. Eleanor is the main suspect and in order to avoid a civil war Adelia joins forces with Rowley Picot, now a Bishop, but also Adelia’s former lover and father of her infant daughter. Taking along her trusted servant Mansur and Gyltha, her friend and nursemaid, Adelia once again uses her knowledge of the sciences to find a murderer.

This book starts out extremely well with the intriguing prologue that lets us know that there is an assassin at work and an extremely clever one at that. The scenes involving the labyrinth where Rosamund Clifford, the King’s mistress, lived and died are creepy and set a very eerie tone to the start of the story, but a lot of that dark suspense is lost when the tale moves onto to the snowbound convent that Adelia and her party are isolated in during a blizzard and where the body count is rapidly rising. This part of the story seemed to drag on a little too long.

A lot of the things that made “Mistress’ such a great read aren’t present here. The mystery is not as complex, there is not enough of Mansur and there is almost none of the romance between Rowley and Adelia that made the first book so much fun. That said I find Franklin’s writing very accessible and love all the historical details she provides. I am not a purist when it comes to historical fiction and don’t mind some of the liberties taken with historical facts, I do appreciate the notes included by the author at the end, which clarifies some of the liberties taken.

Overall I found this to be an entertaining read and a nice blend of historical fiction and forensic mystery. I’m looking forward to book three in the series Grave Goods.