March 15, 2019
Bayard continues her original series featuring real-life historical figure Christine de Pizan. In this second outing, following In the Presence of Evil (2018), Christine, much in demand as both a scribe and a sleuth by the fourteenth-century French royals, is tasked by Queen Isabeau with solving a possible quadruple homicide that took place during a masquerade ball at the palace. After four guests are burned to death and King Charles VI is confined to his bed with a perplexing malady, she works behind the scenes to investigate the tragedy. Though many suspect the king's brother, the Duke of Orl�ans, Christine infiltrates the twisted inner circles of the court, which are rife with jealousies, rivalries, and conspiracies, in search of the real culprit. Outside the palace walls, Christine prowls the often-sordid underbelly of Paris in search of a missing husband, providing readers with a multidimensional portrait of the glitter and the grunge of medieval Paris. The liberal sprinkling of quotations, many from the real de Pizan's own works, lend this intriguing tale an air of historical authenticity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)
April 15, 2020
In 1396 Paris, Christine de Pisan, a widow with children, wants more out of life than child-rearing and so happily accepts a commission to work as a scribe for the queen. Soon she finds herself in the midst of palace intrigue. King Charles VI suffers from mental illness, but many believe his condition to be caused by spells put on him by Valentina, the Duchess of Orle�ans, a reputed sorceress. When the court fools employed by Valentina's husband's find an abandoned baby covered with sores in the palace gardens, Christine must determine if Valentina had plotted to substitute this child for the queen's baby. Christine believes that the duchess is innocent and quickly discovers that her many enemies may be trying to frame her. With the help of the fools, who are anything but foolish, she discovers evil within the palace walls. Readers will enjoy the nicely constructed mystery as well as the well-researched trip to fourteenth-century France, highlighted by an interesting backstory concerning the contents of the royal library.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)
March 9, 2020
It’s 1386 in Bayard’s immersive third French Medieval mystery (after 2019’s In the Shadow of the Enemy), and the bouts of madness of Charles VI are of growing concern. Some members of the king’s court suggest that they’re the result of sorcery on the part of Valentina Visconti, Duchess of Orléans and wife of the king’s brother. Meanwhile, in an atmosphere rife with accusations of witchcraft and evil omens, the king’s fools find a baby girl wrapped in dirty rags, her face blackened by grease, in the king’s garden. In this condition, the child would be considered “a ‘gift’ from the Devil” and destroyed. To spare the baby this fate, the fools ask court scribe Christine de Pizan for help. She takes the infant home and vows to find her mother. When a woman is found dead in the garden the next day, Christine suspects a connection. As she delves deeper, she uncovers a sordid tale of revenge and murder. Christine’s sound observations stand in nice contrast to the prevailing belief in magic. Fans of well-researched historical mysteries will be rewarded. Agent: Josh Getzler, HSG Agency.
March 15, 2020
A young French scribe, risking everything, turns sleuth to save the life and reputation of a slandered duchess. Paris, 1396. A dark figure ventures into a disreputable neighborhood to receive a dirty infant from a gnarled crone. Not long after, the baby is handed off to a surprised Christine de Pizan by a quartet of fools who serve the Duke of Orl�ans, each with an animal nickname: Giliot, Hanotin, Coquinet, and Blondel. Christine, a scribe, has been copying a book for the Duchess of Orl�ans, Valentina Visconti. When the fools claim that the baby was found in the palace gardens and insist that Christine take charge of it, she gives it to her mother for safekeeping. As the kingdom's turmoil is deepened by the grave illness of the king, gossipmongers spread dangerous rumors about Valentina, depicting her as an evil sorceress. The murders of two young women, the prostitute Fleur and the young newlywed Klara, who lived with Christine and her mother after Klara's groom disappeared, seem somehow connected to the secret baby. The surprise reappearance of Klara's husband, Martin du Bois, who claims the baby and declares that her name is Bonne, puts yet another spin on the story. Valentina's enemies weave a tale that she murdered Klara and plans to swap the orphan baby for the queen's. As one of the Duchess' only supporters in the court, and with considerable experience as a sleuth, Christine feels compelled to clear her name. Bayard vividly immerses the reader in the complex and perilous world of medieval France.
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