Mistress of the Art of Death
by Ariana Franklin
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ariana FranklinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2008-01-29
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Book Reviews of Mistress of the Art of Death
Book Review: a frustrating curiosity
Summary: 3 Stars
About a quarter of a way into this intriguing novel of a 12th century female physician, as the writing flaws begin to accumulate, I was telling myself that this is only a historical mystery, not a literary endeavor, so I should just look past the frustrations and enjoy the story. But then about halfway through the book the mystery begins to take a back seat to romance and philosophizing, and the frustrations began to overwhelm the pleasures. I was willing to look past many of the historical anachronisms (being no expert myself), but the attitudes of the main character, basically twenty-first century post-feminist multiculturalism transplanted into 12th century England, made her feel like a character from an old Star Trek episode who lands back in time. Franklin's admiration of doctors was also odd: since when did physicians become some kind of moral exemplars? So as much as we root for Adelia, the physician, and as much as we might cheer on women's rights or oppose capital punishment, none of these positions is developed in a way that is consistent or believable within the broader purpose of achieving a compelling historical narrative.
Even more frustrating for me was the lack of technical sophistication in the writing: many sentences made no sense, pronouns often did not refer to their antecedents, and instead of character development the author uses a clunky and highly artificial italicized interior monologue to convey a character's thoughts (part of the reason so much of the romance and philosophizing rings hollow.) Most egregious for me, however, was the manipulation of point of view. At several key moments in the book, the author has the main character, Adelia, see or say a key point of the story, but Franklin does not convey that information to the reader in order to keep him or her reading. It's an author's responsibility to be consistent with point of view, and this violation of the implicit contract with the reader showed a lack of attention to writing that the story did not deserve.
As to the story itself? I finished the book, which speaks to its merits, but most readers will not be surprised by the solution to the crimes. It turns out, unfortunately, that whatever doubts the reader might have had about the suspect do not come from misleading, beguiling clues but just from extremely odd (in fact, psychotic) behaviors. It was also disappointing to realize by book's end that the solution to the mystery was hardly affected by the main character at all. She deduced a few important facts, but most of the solution came about from other characters and happenstance, so her own role as heroine was diminished once again.
Despite this long list of complaints, I did finish the book, which means it was compelling enough to keep me reading. The author does an especially great job with the character of the king (Henry II); in fact, it's so good that you have to wonder why she didn't attach an equal attention to the other characters, including Adelia. I also admired how she combined the influences of the domestic, daily world with the greater intrigue of international politics and commerce. The crusades, eel sellers, monks, the plight of the Jews, Saracen eunuchs and a host of other colorful characters and situations bring the Cambridge and broader medieval world depicted here to life. I would pass the book on to others and hope they can enjoy its best parts. But I have to wonder where the editors were. Franklin thanks at least three of them at the end. Didn't someone who works for them, and maybe themselves, take a moment to try to edit the book? To work on character development, verisimiltude, writing style, point of view? Readers who are willing to forgive a writer for her imperfections (and, after all, how many of us can write a good historical novel?) should enjoy this book, but how much better it would have been to have had the book's many attributes delivered in a style, technique and voice that matched their quality.
Summary of Mistress of the Art of Death
The national bestselling hit hailed by the New York Times as a "vibrant medieval mystery...[it] outdoes the competition."In medieval Cambridge, England, Adelia, a female forensics expert, is summoned by King Henry II to investigate a series of gruesome murders that has wrongly implicated the Jewish population, yielding even more tragic results. As Adelia's investigation takes her behind the closed doors of the country's churches, the killer prepares to strike again.
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