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The Death Maze

The Death Maze

Mistress of the Art of Death, Adelia Aguilar series 2

Summary

Since solving a particularly nasty case of child murder using her forensic skills, Adelia Aguilar is deemed too valuable to send back to the School of Medicine in Salerno. Instead, King Henry II has decided to keep her in England. This is bad news for Adelia - in twelfth-century England women doctors are regarded with great suspicion. So, with her illegitimate child, Adelia is forced to live and practise in the secrecy of Cambridgeshire's fenland.

But at Henry's court, terrible things are happening. Queen Eleanor is not only stirring up revolt against her husband, but rumour has it that she has also poisoned the King's favourite mistress, Rosamund Clifford.

In a race against time to prove Eleanor's innocence, Adelia is recruited to help. It isn't easy. An assassin is at large and so is Queen Eleanor with an army of supporters. Adelia has never faced greater danger. The armies that might cause civil war lie behind her. The icy winds of a dreadful winter blow around her. And ahead she must brave the thorns of the impenetrable labyrinth that surrounds Fair Rosamund's tower, and decipher the mystery of the dead woman who lies frozen within.

Reviews

  • Highly entertaining... Franklin is an adept storyteller who disseminates her research into the period with clarity and lightness of touch.
    The Times

About the author

Ariana Franklin

Ariana Franklin was born in Devon and, like her father, became a journalist. Having invaded Wales dressed in combat uniform with the Royal Marines for one of their military exercises, accompanied the Queen on a royal visit, missed her own twenty-first birthday party because she had to cover a murder, she married, almost inevitably, another journalist. At this point she decided that staying married was a good idea so she abandoned her career in national newspapers and settled down in the country to bring up two daughters, study medieval history and write. Ariana was the author of the acclaimed, award-winning Mistress of the Art of Death series. She passed away in 2011.
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