The Cup of Ghosts (Mathilde of Westminster 1)

Author - Paul Doherty ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Headline Book Publishing was reviewed on 25-Oct-2008.

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1) Paperback Book The Cup of Ghosts (Mathilde of Westminster 1) by Headline Book Publishing. This and its companion, "The Poison Maiden," are well-written and thoroughly intriguing mysteries, but they are also truly historical: that is, the characters in both stories think, react, and behave like 14th-century people instead of moderns who walk about and do their sleuthing in 14th-century dress. Likewise, that the motives and suspects are not at all what we might expect sets a much greater challenge for the armchair detective who is determined to beat Mathilde of Westminster to the solution of her lethal puzzles. Mr Doherty knows his history, but also deftly transports us to this wholly different time and place and way of thinking, and gives us a taste of how strange it and its inhabitants must be to us, seven centuries away. And I discovered one delightful surprise: among the novel´s "bit players" are individuals whom its author calls Crutched Friars. They are largely unknown to and usually ignored by historians, secular and ecclesiastical, but they are my ancestors, and Mr Doherty has correctly characterized them as they were.¤

2) Paperback Book The Cup of Ghosts (Mathilde of Westminster 1) by Headline Book Publishing. No one can meld fact and fiction in historical mysteries like Doherty can. He is an historical scholar, and he is fully conversant with his field. This book is the first in a new series featuring a female physician who is called Mathilde of Westminster. The book is written as if it is Mathilde herself writing her memoirs. At the beginning of the book she is an old woman reflecting on her life. The book is set in France and England in 1307. Philip is then King of France and Edward II is King of England. The enmity between these two countries is very real, and it was indeed a dangerous time. Political intrigue was at a high point, and life was cheap. Mathilde is about 20 when this story is set, and she has become a very close confident of Queen Isabelle (Philip´s daughter and Edward´s affianced bride). It places Mathilde smack in the middle of the intrigue, violence, killings and distrust that is in Edward´s court at this time. The book moves along fairly swiftly, and because it is a Doherty book, there is lots of bloodshed, but it´s a very good book, and I look forward to hearing more from the fascinating Mathilde.¤

3) Paperback Book The Cup of Ghosts (Mathilde of Westminster 1) by Headline Book Publishing. Mathilde, trained as a physician by her father, finds her life in jeopardy and uprooted. With the Pope´s declaration of Templer´s as heretics, she is taken to her uncle for safety just before her father is executed. The only way for her uncle to keep her safe is for her to become lady in waiting to Princess Isabella and, after Isabella´s marriage to Edward II of England, escape to England as part of the Royal household.

This is as much a novel of French and English history as a mystery. The attention to period detail is exacting. The story is told in retrospect by Mathilde and it is interesting to see Mathilde use her training to uncover causes of death during this period. That is not to say, however, that it lacks for danger, intrigue, and bodies galore; almost too much so, for I didn´t feel I ever really had time to connect with the character. However, if turbulent history and court intrigue fascinate you, this is the book for you.
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4) Paperback Book The Cup of Ghosts (Mathilde of Westminster 1) by Headline Book Publishing. Other reviewers have described the plot and events of ´Cup of Ghosts´, so I won´t bother repeating them here. For me, one of Doherty´s greatest strengths as an author is his ability to bring the Middle Ages to life, and he´s on top form here. I felt I could almost touch the luxurious corruption of the French court, the filth of Paris, the intrigue and double-dealing Mathilde finds in England.

The novel is slow to get going, but stick with it - it´s well worth the effort. Mathilde is a likeable and engaging heroine, while both Edward II and Queen Isabella are vividly and sympathetically portrayed - not something you often see in novels, which tend to depict Isabella as a suffering saint and Edward as a neglectful, perverted lout.

This is the first in a planned series of mysteries featuring Mathilde - the second is due out in 2007. I´m looking forward to it already.¤

5) Paperback Book The Cup of Ghosts (Mathilde of Westminster 1) by Headline Book Publishing. This is the first volume in what promises to be an entertaining historical mystery series, with Mathilde of Westminster as its heroine. Mathilde was raised by her uncle, a Templar Knight, as a physician and herbalist and, while training her in the medical arts, was also training her mind to be unusually observant and analytical. In France, King Philip was determined to crush the power of the Templars in order to seize their enormous wealth so as to forward his plans to become ruler of England as well as France. Knowing that his end was probably at hand, Mathilde´s uncle sends her to the protection of a powerful friend, but, even there she is in danger as the friend and his entire household is murdered. Another of her uncle´s friends sends her to the relative safety of the household of the King´s daughter, Princess Isabella, who is shortly to be married to Edward 2 of England. Isabella´s court moves to England where she is crowned Queen and she and Mathilde begin a perilous journey, walking a narrow and dangerous line between appeasing the changeable moods and tempers of Edward and protecting themselves against the machinations of Philip of France. It´s a fascinating look at life in the 14th century where, even at a royal court,brutal deaths happen frequently and no one, not even the royals themselves, is safe.¤

6) Paperback Book The Cup of Ghosts (Mathilde of Westminster 1) by Headline Book Publishing. By 1322, Mathilde of Westminster was considered the finest physician in London. But in her years as lady-in-waiting to Princess Isabella, she was drawn into the murky politics of the English court, where sudden, mysterious death was part of the tapestry of life. Many years later, Mathilde looks back and chronicles her turbulent life. With her sharp, suspicious intellect ready to distinguish between a fatality and an unnatural death, Mathilde is confronted by a host of chilling murders. The source of these horrors is the fierce political rivalry between Philip of France and Edward of England. This manifests itself in a series of gruesome killings, one of which actually took place during Edward II´s Coronation, when a knight of the Royal Household, Sir John Baquelle was crushed to death.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 22-Nov-2008, 07553287529780755328758, 550-930-520-870-170-410-8

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