Mistress of the Art of Death / Ariana Franklin 384 p.

This is the first in Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series about medieval physician and pathologist Adelia Aguilar. It's set during the reign of Henry II and full of terrific period detail and vocabulary. Here Adelia is summoned by the King from her comfortable position in Salerno to solve the mystery of several murdered children in Cambridgeshire. The Jews are blamed and forced into the sheriff's castle for protection, which deprives them of their rights and Henry of their considerable tax revenue. Adelia uncovers a thoroughly evil villain and manages to fall in love as well, so there's a little something for everyone here. Franklin paints an interesting picture of the mix of cultures and faiths in medieval England. She wrote three others in this series, and many other novels under her real name, Diana Norman, before she died in January 2011.