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    The Difficult Saint: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery
    Unavailable
    The Difficult Saint: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery
    Unavailable
    The Difficult Saint: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery
    Ebook432 pages6 hours

    The Difficult Saint: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery

    By Sharan Newman

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In The Difficult Saint, Sharan Newman returns to medieval France and the murder-haunted Catherine LeVendeur, heroine of this acclaimed series.

    After a harrowing stay with Catherine's in-laws in Scotland, Catherine and her husband, Edgar, have returned home with their two small children to live a life of peace at last--or so they hope. But soon the safety of those they love is questioned as anti-Jewish sentiment begins to grow in Paris. Raised Catholic by her father, Hubert, who poses as a Christian while practicing Judaism in secret, Catherine fears that the violence of the most recent crusade will repeat itself, victimizing members of her family. But before she can put too much thought into that, fate interrupts.

    Catherine's estranged younger sister, Agnes, has returned to Paris with the news that she has been promised in marriage to a German lord. Bitter about their religious differences Agnes wants no part of Catherine or Hubert--except for the sizable dowry that Hubert can provide. When Catherine and Hubert arrange for Agnes to be escorted to Germany with her dowry, they assume that they have seen the last of her.

    But then one of Agnes's escorts returns to Paris with terrible news: Agnes's new husband appears to have been murdered by poisoning, and Agnes is the prime suspect. In spite of their differences, Catherine believes in her innocence, and knows that she must do everything she can to save her sister's life. And when Catherine and her brood travel to Germany to begin sleuthing in a dangerously anti-Semetic climate, it becomes clear that Catherine and Edgar's long-dreamt of life of peace remains in the distant future--if they live to see it at all.

    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateNov 15, 2000
    ISBN9781466817210
    Unavailable
    The Difficult Saint: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery
    Author

    Sharan Newman

    Sharan Newman is a medieval historian and author. She took her Master’s degree in Medieval Literature at Michigan State University and then did her doctoral work at the University of California at Santa Barbara in Medieval Studies, specializing in twelfth-century France. She is a member of the Medieval Academy and the Medieval Association of the Pacific. Rather than teach, Newman chose to use her education to write novels set in the Middle Ages, including three Arthurian fantasies and more than half a dozen mysteries set in twelfth-century France, featuring Catherine LeVendeur, a one-time student of Heloise at the Paraclete; her husband, Edgar, an Anglo-Scot; and Solomon, a Jewish merchant of Paris. The books focus on the life of the bourgeoisie and minor nobility and also the uneasy relations between Christians and Jews at that time. They also incorporate events of the twelfth-century such as the Second Crusade and the rise of the Cathars. The Catherine Levendeur mysteries have been nominated for many awards. Sharan won the Macavity Award for best first mystery for Death Comes As Epiphany, the Herodotus Award for best historical mystery for Cursed in the Blood, and The Witch in the Well won the Bruce Alexander award for best historical mystery. Her mystery The Shanghai Tunnel is set in Portland in 1868. Newman has also written non-fiction books, including The Real History Behind the Da Vince Code and The Real History Behind the Templars. Newman lives on a mountainside in Oregon.

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    Reviews for The Difficult Saint

    3.5/5

    42 ratings3 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This was a decent, solidly written mystery with an interesting historical context (this time, a trip from France into Germany while Louis VII is ramping up for a Crusade) but I felt it wasn't one of the best Catherine LeVendeur books. I've never been entirely sold on the large number of viewpoints in these books, and in this one particularly, I felt that Catherine's voice had been lost in the multitude. One or two of the new characters seemed hurriedly developed, as well.The central mystery plot itself was fine, although the reader's knowing so much more than the sleuths makes for less exciting revelations. (Some of the later character-in-peril parts were much more gripping.) The violence that has been brewing in the Europe these books depict was vividly and disturbingly portrayed -- although it would be hard-put to be quite so grim and bloody as Cursed in the Blood, the previous book in the series. I was satisfied with some of the ongoing character arcs and conflicts that resolved here, although there were some unanswered questions, especially about Catherine's reaction to events.Notes on audiobook narration: This book had a different reader than the others I've listened to, and I really didn't enjoy the change. The French names are no longer given a French pronunciation (in French, you know, "Agnes" sounds quite beautiful), and the narration is rather monotonic. Some dialogue was whispered so softly (in comparison to the other lines and narration) as to be inaudible, and many characters, including our heroine, sounded inappropriately petulant.
    • 3/5
      A great deal of this book centers on the horrific pogrom of the Jews of Cologne, which was an early incident in the second Crusade. The rest of it is a pretty well researched medieval mystery. The book was copyright in 1999.
    • 2/5
      I had a hard time working my way through this. The persecution of Jews is a major theme, which I don't particularly like, although I realize it was reality. But the characters weren't sympathetic, and the action frequently took place off the pages.