In a nutshell, the book is the story of Adelia, a young woman in the middle ages (1100s). Think the Kay Scarpetta of her time. She’s sent from her home in Salerno, where she is a “Doctor of the Dead” to England during the reign of Henry II to help determine who is murdering young children in Cambridge.
I enjoy mysteries and I enjoy historical fiction so I really enjoyed having the two merged together. I found the main characters well developed, and not sappy or formulaic but believable. That said, I did formulate my guess early on as to the identity of the murderer and it proved correct. Still, there were twists and turns in the book that surprised me and kept me engaged. Plus, a shock at the climax that so saddened me, I had to turn away from the book for a while until I could face it again (hope I’m not giving too much away).
There appear to be at least three other books in this series by Ariana Franklin, with the second one being The Serpent’s Tale (unfortunately, not available in Kindle format from my library), and I will definitely be reading it.