If you’ve already read all the Brother Cadfaels, you might be interested in some of the following writers who also specialize in medieval settings. We regularly import most of the British paperbacks, and of course will be happy to order any that we don’t have on hand.

|After Peters, P. C. Doherty is probably the best known of the writers specializing in medieval historical mysteries. Under this name, he has written ten featuring Hugh Corbett, an investigator for King Edward in approximately 1300. This is a well-developed series with the authentic feel of medieval London. Some of these are published in American hardcover editions, but they appear in paper only in British editions.

Doherty also writes several other series under different names:

• As Michael Clynes, featuring Sir Roger Shallot. There are six in the series; though they are available only in hardcover in this country, we can get them in paper from Britain.
• As Paul Doherty, featuring Matthias Fitzosbert, illegimate son of the parish priest in Sutton Courteney, Gloucestershire. Blends of medieval life, terror, and magic.
• As  Paul Harding, a series of seven books set in London in the late 1300s and featuring Brother Athhelstan, secretary to the Coroner of London, Sir John Cranston. These are available only in British paperback.

|Margaret Frazer is the creator of Sister Frevisse, resident of the convent of St. Frideswide and a great-niece of Geoffrey Chaucer. The titles in this series evoke Chaucer: The Prioress’s Tale, The Murderer’s Tale, etc. Sister Frevisse’s connection to the rich and powerful Thomas Chaucer and her post as hosteler of the priory allow her plenty of scope as a sleuth.

|Thirteenth Night is set in the Duchy of Orsino in the thirteenth century; the jester Feste, from Twelfth Night, is the sleuth. Alan Gordon does an admirable job recreating Italy in the 1200s, and though knowledge of Shakespeare's play gives an extra edge, one can thoroughly enjoy the mystery without it.

|Susanna Gregory’s Plague on Both Your Houses, set during the Black Plague,  is the first in a series about physician Matthew Bartholomew, teacher of medicine at Michaelhouse, part of the new University of Cambridge. Bartholomew’s unorthodox but effective treatments get him into trouble. This series is available in British paper and American hardcover.

|Bernard Knight's Crowner John series began with The Sanctuary Seeker. Set in the twelfth century, it recounts the adventures of Sir John de Wolfe, Devon's first county coroner.

|Michael Jecks’ popular Medieval West Country series begins with The Last Templar. Bailiff Simon Puttock and Sir Baldwin Furnshill. These also are available only in British paperback.

|Edward Marston’s Domesday series begins with The Wolves of Savernake, set in 1086. Two of the King’s men (soldier Ralph Delchard and lawyer Gervase Bret) hold tribunals as part of the surveying and census-taking effort instituted by the King.  These are available in American editions, both hardcover and paper.

|Ian Morson’s Willian Falconer series begins with Falconer’s Crusade and is set in 13th century Oxford, where the daringly progressive teacher and Aristotelian philosopher uses his skill to solve town and gown  crimes.

|Sharan Newman writes about Catherine LeVendeur, who in the first book is a novice-scholar at the Convent of the Paraclete. (Eloise and Abelard appear as background characters.) The books are set mainly in France, but Catherine travels to other parts of the continent as well. The first of the series, Death Comes as Epiphany, won the Macavity and was nominated for both the Agatha and the Anthony Award. These are all available in American hardcover and paperback.

|Sharon Kay Penman’s The Queen’s Man is the first of a series featuring Justin de Quincy, who becomes Eleanor of Aquitaine’s man in a court where Richard the Lionhearted is missing and John is planning to seize the throne. Deftly weaves together plot, character, and historical detail.

|Candace Robb began her Owen Archer series with The Apothecary Rose, about a Welsh bowman, formerly attached to the Duke of Lancaster’s retinue, and now a spy for the Archbishop of York when he is not helping his wife, Mistress Wilton, in the apothecary trade. These are available in American hardcover and paperback.

|With Remedy for Treason, Caroline Roe (aka Medora Sale) commenced a new series set in Giroma, Spain, in 1353. The detective is Isaac, a blind Jewish physician.

|Kate Sedley’s work features Roger the Chapman. Although his mother originally sent him to a Benedictine monastery, Roger has answered the call of the outside world and now travels as a peddler throughout England, having adventures and investigating crimes. Available in British import.

|Peter Tremayne is the creator of Sister Fidelma, an Irish nun (who in modern terms would be described as a barrister) in 664 A.D. The first in the series, Absolution by Murder, takes place at the Synod of Whitby. These provide a fascinating account of the Celtic church and its relation to the Roman church.

|Barry Unsworth’s Morality Play, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, deals with a young renegade priest, Nicholas Barber, who joins an acting troupe enacting a real-life murder in the rural village into which they have wandered.

|And finally, in A Medieval Family, Frances and Joseph Gies give a true account of the Paston family of Norfold, long known to medieval scholars because the extensive family correspondence has survived five centuries. The book shows the fascinating and rarely revealed side of history, the side we hope to find when reading fiction--the lives of ordinary people with problems, tragedies, and moments of happiness.

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