Fortune Like the Moon

Booklist

A well and gently written medieval [series]

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The brutal murder of a young nun threatens the peace of the kingdom in this promising first novel by an author who might just be the next Ellis Peters. Richard Plantagenet, at his mother's behest, has released prisoners to signal the start of his enlightened reign in 1189. Fearful the people will rally against him, Richard dispatches knight Josse d'Acquin to Hawkenlye Abbey, headed by the incomparable Abbess Helewise, to make sure a freed felon didn't commit the crime. The abbess tells Josse that the slain novice, Gunnora, while outwardly devout, didn't have the right attitude for convent life. In fact, her only friend was newcomer Elvera, with whom she gossiped and laughed. Delving into Gunnora's past, Josse discovers that she was the older daughter of a dying lord who wanted her to marry a neighbor in order to join their lands. Rather than do so, she entered the convent while her younger sister married the man. But the sister has since died, leaving in question who will inherit the combined estate. Through a jeweled cross left at the scene of the murder, Josse is able to determine that Gunnora was Elvera's cousin. Before he can ask Elvera in detail about her relative's death, however, she drowns. Clare tells a chilling tale of inheritance and love while highlighting the analytic skills of both widowed Helewise and former warrior Josse, whose charming relationship will leave readers for more. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

The medieval era is a popular setting for mysteries these days, as evidenced by these three new titles. Clare introduces a new heroine, the exemplary Abbess of Hawkenlye, who must join forces with an emissary from Richard Plantagenet to solve the murder of first one and then two young nuns. The ending is a little limp, but the writing is fine, and the abbess is an engaging character, one of the few religious in such mysteries (along with Sister Fidelma) actually to be presented in a positive light. Wolf brings back the hero of No Dark Place, Hugh de Leon, who in his first mystery discovered that he was heir to the Earl of Wiltshire. Hugh is determined to marry his feisty beloved despite opposition from the earl and is subsequently caught up in investigating the murder of the father of the bride the earl intends for him. The cool, savvy Hugh is almost too good to be true, and the psychic communication between him and his true love doesn't seem to fit with the otherwise realistically detailed surrounds, but the plot moves along quite nicely and should entertain most fans. Over the last few years. the publisher has been releasing Jecks's series featuring Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace in 14th-century England, in an attractive little mass-market format. Like all Jecks's tales, this one--concerning the suspicious death of the new master of Throwleigh, a five-year-old boy--is nicely detailed and tightly argued, with involving action and memorable characters. The whole series belongs in any collection where historicals are popular.--Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Kirkus Reviews

Clare launches her new series in 1189, when Henry II of England has died from an anal fistula and his contentious queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, at large for the first time in 15 years, schemes to win acceptance for her favorite son, the foreign Richard Plantagenet, as king. Before he arrives from Poitiers, Eleanor, gambling on a p.r. move in his name, empties England's prisons. Immediately, a nun from the abbey of Hawkenlye meets a brutal death, and Richard's childhood friend, soldier of fortune Josse d'Acquin, is dispatched to handle the situation and salvage Richard's name—a task more and more complicated by what he learns from Helewise, the sharp Abbess of Hawkenlye. Evidently the victim, Gunnora of Winnowlands, was anything but a model novice, and she entered the convent under passing strange circumstances. Like Josse, the prose proceeds so overcarefully through the first half that little flaws in language and logic (abbess candidates are `short-listed` and discuss a `case of delayed shock`) stick out incongruously as Clare traces the tangled web linking Gunnora's kin to a family with adjoining lands and a series of more deliberate (and welcome) shocks. Queen Eleanor reappears, more vital than Richard, to set up the series, establishing Josse as future `king's man` for her famously absent son; and even the late Gunnora returns to life. Cunningly shifting sympathies among virtually all the players, Clare spotlights first Helewise, then Josse, in a detecting competition that lifts the partners above their predictable gender roles—Josse tracks in the woods; Helewise has Miss Marple hunches—immersing them in a suddenly engrossing tale.

From the Publisher

"Written with verve and elan, this promises to be the beginning of a new series featuring Josee d'Aquin and Abbesse Helewise. Long may they live in detecting history!"-- The Poisoned Pen

"[A] promising first novel by an author who might just be the next Ellis Peters."--Publishers Weekly