Sharan Newman's Cursed in the Blood


© Lynne Remick
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Dec 25, 2001



CURSED IN THE BLOOD
Sharan Newman
Forge Mystery/TOR, 1998
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN No.: 0-812-59020-1, $6.99, 370 Pages
Reviewed by Lynne Remick

With a great talent for writing Medieval mysteries, Sharan Newman escorts us back to 12th century Scotland and sets an intriguing who-done-it right in our laps.

In Cursed in the Blood, the fifth book in the Catherine LeVendeur series, Catherine brings a son, into the world of Medieval Paris. But while Catherine's and her son enjoy his first months, three of her husband's relatives endure their last. Back in Scotland, Edgar's two brothers and nephews turn-up in a field, brutally murdered, each missing a body part. Summoned back to Scotland to assist in bringing the murders to justice, Edgar hesitates. But when Catherine's father confides to Edgar that he is under scrutiny for being a Jew, Edgar believes it may be safer for Catherine and James to be with him in Scotland, rather than in Paris with her father. He even brings along Catherine's cousin, Solomon, to ensure the safety of his new family. Not surprisingly, Edgar turns out to be wrong.

After nearly dying from seasickness on the journey to Edgar's homeland, Catherine finds herself in a cold and foreign country. Soon separated from Edgar as he rides off with his tyrannical father to enact revenge, Catherine strives to cross the language barrier and make sense of the hatred that breeds around her. A cruel man, her father-in-law Waldeve has many enemies. But just which one of them would murder his sons and grandson? Catherine fears for her life and that of her son as she realizes that Waldeve's enemies may be her own.

Cursed in the Blood marks my first encounter with the works of Sharan Newman. From the moment the story began in a ditch on the north side of Hadrian's Wall,I could not put the book down. The premise of the triple murder both chilled and teased, feeding my desire to find out exactly who and why. Catherine, as a former nun and new mother, posed an intriguing character with a great deal of curiosity and intuitiveness. Her love for her husband, as well as his for her, provided an extra stake in the outcome, and made the mystery an even more compelling read.

Newman's intricate threads of history and detail brought color to the story, which personified, is a brilliantly woven tapestry of betrayal, murder, honor, mystery, hatred, love, intolerance and deceit. Reading this excellent novel has inspired me to immediately add Newman's previous Catherine LeVendeur novels, as well as her upcoming The Difficult Saint and To Wear the White Cloak to my reading list.
        

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages
1.   Jan 7, 2002 11:29 PM
nother great review, Lynne; this series sounds intriguing. I read a book recently that was set partly in this period (Teutonic Knights) and partly in the present. Strange structure.

Sally Odgers
( ...

-- posted by Sallyodgers



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