This was another four book week. I'm slowly getting back up to speed. My favorite was Sharon Kay Penman's The Queen's Man which introduces us to Justin de Quincy, the illegitimate son of a Catholic bishop in Richard I's England. Penman has the book subtitled "A Medieval Mystery," but it's not really.
More of a police-procedural wherein the police are shire deputy sherrifs and the highwayman's identity is already known, the story convincingly travels to 1193 London and Justin follows evidence to track down the criminal.
The book is not a strenuous read like some historical fiction can be, but the secondary characters are sketchy at best and the portrait of Eleanor of Aquitaine was entirely too flattering, in my opinion. Consider this a frivolous beach book for the college history professor.
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