Books & More for Santa Cruz Readers...
Favorite Quotes
"Does it afflict you to find your books wearing out? I mean literally ... the mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all. "
— William Dean Howells
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Medieval Mysteries 
Mysteries set in the Middle Ages
Axe for an Abbot
Series Title: Sigismondo
by Eyre, Elizabeth
When someone uses Sigismondo's axe to kill an important abbott, his reputation as a detective is at stake in Renaissance Italy.
The Canterbury Papers
by Healey, Judith Koll
The former queen of both England and France, Eleanor of Aquitaine sends her one-time ward, Alais, sister of the king of France, on a mission to retrieve a cache of dangerous letters hidden in Canterbury Cathedral.
A Conspiracy of Violence
Series Title: Thomas Chaloner Mysteries
by Gregory, Susanna
Thomas Chaloner, a reluctant spy in London for the Secretary of State, finds himself at a crossroads when investigating a murder and being dispatched to the Tower to unearth gold buried by the last governor.
A Draught for a Dead Man
by Roe, Caroline
Blind Jewish physician Isaac of Girona journeys to northern Catalonia to attend a wedding and to heal an injured knight badly beaten in a mysterious attack, but the case becomes complicated by the murder of an innocent apprentice.
The Eve of Saint Hyacinth
Series Title: Roger the Chapman Mysteries
by Sedley, Kate
Set in 1475, King Edward IV of England is poised to invade France, but on the eve of the invasion, Roger the Chapman is informed of a plot to assassinate the King's brother.
The Eye of God
Series Title: Kathryn Swinbrooke Mysteries
by Grace, C.L.
Kathryn Swinbrooke and Colum Murtagh search for Edward IV's Eye of God, a royal talisman lost in battle during 1471, and they end up investigating the death of a Lancastrian soldier who fled from the battle with the talisman.
Face Down Upon an Herbal
Series Title: Lady Susanna Appleton Mysteries
by Emerson, Kathy Lynn
Elizabeth I asks Lady Susanna Appleton to visit Madderly Castle to help Lady Madderly finish her book on herbs, but after a series of murders, including that of Lady Madderly, Lady Susanna suspects treason.
Falconer and the Great Beast
Series Title: William Falconer Mysteries
by Morson, Ian
Oxford scholar William Falconer faces a new mystery in 1268 involving the apparent murder of the ambassador of the Tartars, a barbarian tribe camped in Oxford before a meeting with the king.
Fortune Like the Moon
Series Title: Hawkenlye Mysteries
by Clare, Alys
In the wake of a young nun's death in 1157 rural Kent, soldier-of-fortune Josse d'Acquin sets out to protect the reputation of the king, who had released the prime suspect, and is aided by the Abbess of Hawkenlye in uncovering secrets surrounding the convent.
The Lady Chapel
Series Title: Owen Archer Mysteries
by Robb, Candace
In 1365, Owen Archer finds himself once again called upon by Archbishop Thorseby to exercise his skills as detective. His only witness to a murder is a young boy and his only suspect a mysterious hooded woman - and neither can be found.
A Moorland Hanging
by Jecks, Michael
The murder of a runaway servant draws Sir Baldwin Furnshill, a former Knight Templar, and his friend, Simon Puttock, on a dangerous search for a killer that brings them face to face with a vicious conspiracy involving corruption, extortion, greed, and murder.
Morality Play
by Unsworth, Barry
Nicholas Barber leaves monkhood to join a group of itinerant players and becomes caught in a 14th-century small-town murder which they try to solve.
A Morbid Taste for Bones
Series Title: Cadfael Chronicles
by Peters, Ellis
The prior of Shrewsbury wants the miraculous bones of Saint Winifred, and he sends Brother Cadfael to claim them.
Murder in the Holy City
Series Title: Geoffrey Mappestone mysteries
by Beaufort, Simon
When Sir Geoffrey de Mappestone returns from a desert patrol near Jerusalem during the Crusades, he discovers a murdered soldier in a baker's bedchamber. It turns out this is one of many suspicious deaths in the city.
Mystery of Errors
Series Title: Shakespeare & Smythe
by Hawke, Simon
Fledgling playwright William Shakespeare teams up with aspiring actor Symington Smythe to solve an Elizabethan mystery that could end in murder.
The Name of the Rose
by Eco, Umberto
In the early 14th century, the English monk William, visiting at a Clunic abbey in Italy, solves a murder.
The Novice's Tale
Series Title: Sister Frevisse Mysteries
by Frazer, Margaret
The peacefulness of St. Frideswide's convent is disturbed when a less-than-pleasant guest, novice Thomasine's aunt, is found murdered and Thomasine is the prime suspect.
The Poisoned Serpent
by Wolf, Joan
Hugh de Leon, a knight uncomfortable with his newly discovered station in life, must save an innocent man's life, in a medieval mystery set against the backdrop of a civil war-torn twelfth-century England.
The Poyson Garden
Series Title: Elizabeth I Mysteries
by Harper, Karen
Released from the Tower of London by an insurrection against Queen Mary, her half sister, the twenty-five-year-old Princess Elizabeth immediately puts herself back into harm's way by investigating a multiple poisoning.
The Queen's Man
Series Title: Justin de Quincy Mysteries
by Penman, Sharon Kay
In the 12th century, Eleanor of Aquitaine hires Justin de Quincy, bastard son of the bishop of Chester, to find the murderer of one of her goldsmiths.
Satan in St. Mary's
by Doherty, P.C.
Hugh Corbett, a clerk in the court of King Edward I, investigates the death of a man found hanged in a London Church and stumbles onto a deadly conspiracy.
A Season of Knives
Series Title: Sir Robert Carey Mysteries
by Chisholm, P.F.
After being accused of ordering the murder of an embezzler, Sir Robert Carey, cousin to Elizabeth I, must find the culprit and protect the woman he loves, who has married someone else.
To Shield the Queen: A Mystery at Queen Elizabeth I's Court
Series Title: Ursula Blanchard Mysteries
by Buckley, Fiona
Ursula Blanchard, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth in 1560, goes to visit the wife of Sir Robert Dudley who is supposedly being poisoned so that Dudley can marry Elizabeth, but while Ursula is with her, Dudley's wife dies of a broken neck, rather than from poison.
The Subtle Serpent
Series Title: Sister Fidelma Mysteries
by Tremayne, Peter
In seventh century Ireland, Sister Fidelma is sent to a remote abbey to investigate a murder in which the victim was found clutching both a cross and a pagan death symbol.
A Time for the Death of a King
by Dukthas, Ann
Present at the death of Lord Darnley, Mary Stuart's husband, Nicholas Segalia shares what he knows about the alleged murder.
The White Rose Murders
Series Title: Sir Roger Shallot Journals
by Clynes, Michael
Sir Roger Shallot and his master Benjamin Daunbey, the nephew of Cardinal Wolsey, must solve several murders with only a poem and a white rose as the clues.
Wine of Violence
Series Title: Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal mysteries
by Royal, Priscilla
In the year 1270 on the remote East Anglican coast, the new prioress of Tyndal priory gets more than she had bargained for when she takes over the Order of Fontevraud after a monk is found brutally murdered in the cloister gardens.
The Wolves of Savernake
Series Title: Domesday Books
by Marston, Edward
Gervase Bret and Ralph Delchard go to the village of Bedwyn to investigate land claims of the mill owner, but when they arrive, he has been brutally killed, but a second death tells them he has been murdered.
