The Midsummer Crown

When I read Kate Sedley's first Roger the Chapman series, I hadn't yet become interested in Plantagent and Tudor England so the fact that Roger set out to improve Richard III's image faded into the background with the second book and the move away from political intrigue. Around book 14, Richard of Gloucester again needed Roger's help and the series has alternated between political and personal crimes since then. The Midsummer Crown is one of the political installments, but court machinations stayed with me less than the apparently unconnected male/female conflict among the families of the courtiers. The "twist" ending was well done, both sufficiently surprising and well-supported, and the whispers about the missing princes felt like ordinary rumors that would go around the court rather than the lurid stories we've grown accustom to. At the end of the novel, Roger attends Richard III's coronation feast and then goes home to Bristol. There are two more books in the series and while the final one will probably end at Bosworth, I hope the next one focuses on Bristol or Roger's commercial travels.

The Sanctuary Murders

 I think Susannah Gregory is winding down her Matthew Bartholomew series. I'm going to miss it, particularly since my re-reading has showed me how the characters have evolved. The Sanctuary Murders isn't one of my favorite installments, though. I don't know if it was the book or if my 2020-induced stress made it harder to concentrate, but I just couldn't get into it (and have stalled on writing this review). Missing his fiancee Matilda (who's on a wedding-clothes buying trip with his sister Edith), Matthew Bartholomew finds himself tasked with solving mysterious deaths at a nearby hospital. The hospital isn't what it appears to be, and neither are the victims or the rest of the inmates. Complicated by more intense than usual town-versus-gown tensions and Brother Michael's new job as the University Chancellor, the crime felt like there were too many suspects and motives and none of them particularly likely. Add in feuding nuns visiting Cambridge for a conclave and I felt that there was too much distraction and not enough entertainment. Or maybe I was just overwhelmed by 2020 and when I get around to re-reading this one (in 10-25 years), I'll appreciate it more.

Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party

 I don't remember Newt Gingrich being particularly involved in the downfall of Jim Wright, his predecessor as Speaker of the House. In the first half of 1989, I was more concerned with passing P-Chem II (which I managed to do) than with politics. I came home for the summer, and the news was full of reports of a book deal and maybe something to do with the Speaker's wife's job??? I generally don't enjoy current political books, but more than 30 years have passed since this scandal and 20 since Gingrich has been in power, having lost in no-principles partisan game he brought to Washington.

Gingrich originally ran as a reformer, and once elected skillfully used the post-Watergate reforms to attack Democratic politicians. With an already established reputation for personal nastiness and multiple sexual affairs, he somehow managed to claim the "right" side and joined with Republican political operatives like Lee Atwater and Ed Rollins to weaponize the slightest misstep from opponents, even when he was doing the same thing. In an echo of 1998, Gingrich's attack on Wright was based on a contract for a book written in part by his staff which the latter had signed, despite the fact that Gingrich had himself put his name on a book partially written by his staff (and was later reprimanded for it). While claiming to act on principle but amping up the intensity of the political theater, Gingrich changed Congress from a place where progress occurred through compromise to a body more cynical and less productive than he claimed it was. Wright comes across as a flawed man who probably wasn't well suited to the Speaker's job, but Gingrich is the one who did real harm to the body.

The Last Hours

 Trust Minette Walters to make a novel set against the first wave of the Black Death even darker. The Last Hours opened as Sir Richard of Develish prepares to negotiate his daughter Eleanor's marriage to the son of a nearby lord. Sir Richard is a brutal, drunken lout and his vain daughter is no better, frequently venting her cruelty on Thaddeus Thurkell, the bastard sone of one of her father's serfs

Then the plague begins. Sir Richard's retinue falls to it at Bradmayne, and would have brought it to Develish if not for Lady Anne. She ruled the manor through kindness and intelligence, enforcing quarantines and cleanliness so the serfs are healthier (and through her tuition literate) as well as free from the rats we know carried yersinia pests. Lady Anne also had a warning from a messenger, which she altered to prevent panic. With Thaddeus as her new Steward and a council of leading serfs, they lead a peaceful, if anxious life for about two months. then, a mruder and fears of eventual starvation lead Thaddeus and five teenage boys on a mission to find food and news of the outside world. 

From here, Walters uses a dual track narrative. WE see Anne and her council deal with both Eleanor's machinations and dark secrets and with an attack by a marauding lord. Meanwhile, thaddeus and the boys scour the land for supplies and signs of life. For them, it's also a personal journey, with the boys becoming responsible and Thaddeus unknowingly letting his guard down. Walters ends the book on a cliffhanger. Luckily, I already have the sequel so I don't have to wait a year or tow to find out if Anne, Thaddeus, and the council begin to creat a new society in with the scarcity of labor destroys the old feudal system.

Murder Being Once Done

 Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford novel feel older than they are - or maybe I just don't realize that 1972, a year in which I have a few memories, is so far in the past. Rendell's and Wexford's, attitudes, though come from a prior era. The poor are always dirty - not just in a squalid neighborhood but lacking in personal hygiene as well. And their criminality is assured

Murder Being Once Done Begins with Wexford on a doctor prescribed break with his nephew in London. Hovered over by his wife and niece, he's bore to tears until he comes across a crime shene while on a walk - a crime where his nephew, Howard, a Detective Superintendent with the Metropolitan Police, is the lead investigator. Lovejoy Morgan appears to be a "good girl," too sheltered to hold all but the most menial job, yet her postmortem shows that she'd given birth within the year. Wexford takes on the task fo finding her identity and her killer. Succeeding through a combination of grunt work and luck - but not after getting a very wrong answer that was somehow connected to the truth. I enjoyed how Rendell placed the surprise twist in an unusual place but found the killer's identity somewhat unbelievable. There's also the psychology. Rendell was known as one of the first mystery writers to bring psychology into the genre, but it feels, dated, simplistic at times, and seen through Rendell's upper-middle class British lens. The Wexford series, and most of Rendell's books, feel like a time capsule - enjoyable but somehow her London is more remote than Miss Marple's St. Mary Mead.