Murder by the Book - Regina Public Library’s mystery discussion group
Knights and Dark Ladies
Murder Mysteries Set in the Renaissance
In addition to the many legally sanctioned forms of murder in Renaissance times [such
as losing a jousting tournament or the beheading of troublesome ex-wives], there
were definitely some killings that seem to have cried out for justice. Murderers could
be subtle, but since the art of detection was still in its infancy with DNA testing and
requisitioning of phone records still a long way down the road, investigators of the
time had to be a cerebral lot, depending mostly on their keen powers of observation
and knowledge of human foibles to lead them to the culprits.
For the purpose of this list, we have included books taking place in the 15th, 16th and
17th century in Britain and Europe.
Bennett, Ronan - Havoc, in its Third Year (2004) (town coroner John Brigge tries to
clear a young mother accused of murdering her baby) [England; 1630s]
Benson, Ann - Thief of souls: a novel (2002) (The life and crimes of serial killer Gilles
de Rais, a French aristocrat and contemporary of Joan of Arc, are set against
the backdrop of a parallel story of a modern-day criminal mastermind stalking
the streets of Los Angeles.) [France, 1430s]
Buckley, Fiona (Ursula Blanchard, lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I) [England;
1560s]
- To Shield the Queen (1997)
- The Doublet Affair (1998
- The Queen’s Ransom (2000 reprint 2008) on order
- To Ruin a Queen (2000)
- Queen of Ambition (2001)
- A Pawn for a Queen (2002)
- The Fugitive Queen (2004)
- The Siren Queen (2004)
Chisholm, P.F. (Sir Robert Carey, cousin and courtier of Elizabeth I) [England; 1592]
First book: A Famine of Horses (1994) RPL does not have
- Season of Knives (1996) v.2. there are four titles in the series but RPL has only this one
Clynes, Michael (Sir Roger Shallot, secret emissary of Henry VIII) [Britain and
Europe; 1520s]
- The White Rose Murders (1991)
- The Poisoned Chalice (1992)
- Brood of Vipers (1994)
- The Gallows Murders (1995)
Collier, Iris (Nicholas Peverell, adviser to King Henry VIII) [England, 1530s]
- Day of wrath (2001)
- Reluctant Spy (2002)
- The Secrets of the Black Canons (2006)
D'Almeida, Sarah (based on characters from Alexandre Dumas’ classic The Three
Musketeers) [Paris, France; 1625]
- Death of a Musketeer (2006)
- Musketeer's Apprentice (2007)
- Musketeer's Seamstress (2007)
Dukthas, Ann - A Time for the Death of a King (1994) (time-travelling Jesuit, Nicholas
Segalla, looks into the murder of the husband of Mary Queen of Scots)
[Scotland; 1567]
Emerson, Kathy Lynn (Elizabethan herbalist Susanna, Lady Appleton) [England; 1560s1570s] RPL is missing four of ten in the series, including the three most recent ones
- Face Down in the Marrow Bone Pie (1997) v.1
- Face Down Across the Western Sea (2002)
Eyre, Elizabeth (Venetian detective and soldier of fortune Sigismondo) [Italy; 1500s]
- Death of a Duchess (1992)
- Curtains for the Cardinal (1993)
- Poison for the Prince (1994)
- Bravo for the Bride (1994)
- Ax for the Abbot (1996)
- Dirge for a Doge (1997)
Frazer, Margaret (Dame Frevisse is a cloistered nun) [England; 1400s] First book: The
Novices Tale (1992) RPL does not have
- -The Reeve’s Tale (2000) v. 9; first RPL has
- The Squire’s Tale (2000) v. 10
- The Clerk’s Tale (2002) v. 11
- The Bastard’s Tale (2003) v. 12
- The Hunter’s Tale (2004) v. 13
- The Widow’s Tale (2004) v. 14
- The Sempster’s Tale (2006) v.15
- The Traitor’s Tale (2007) v. 16
Frazer, Margaret (Joliffe, the leader of traveling players) [England; 1400s]
- A Play of Isaac (2004)
- A Play of Dux Moraud (2005)
- A Play of Knaves (2006)
- A Play of Lords (2007)
Gellis, Roberta - Lucrezia Borgia and the Mother of Poisons (2003) (Lucrezia Borgia is
accused of poisoning her husband’s mistress) [Italy; 1500s]
Gooden, Philip (Shakespearean actor Nick Revill) [London, England; 1599-1604]
- The Sleep of Death (2000) v.1
- Death of Kings (2001) v.2
- The Pale Companion (2002) v.3 RPL does not have
- Alms for Oblivion (2003) v.4
- Mask of Night (2004) v.5
- An Honourable Murder (2005) v.6 RPL does not have
Grace, C. L. (physician Kathryn Swinbrooke series) [England; 1400s] First book: A
Shrine of Murders (1993) RPL does not have
- Merchant of Death (1995) v. 3
- The Book of Shadows (1996)
- Saintly Murders (2001)
- A Maze of Murders (2003)
- Feast of Poisons (2004)
Gregory, Susanna (Thomas Chaloner, reluctant spy for the king’s intelligence service)
[London; mid-1600s]
- Conspiracy of Violence (2006)
- Blood on the Strand (2007)
Harper, Karen (Elizabeth I is the investigator) [England; 1500s]
- The Poyson Garden (1999)
- The Tidal Pool (2000)
- The Twylight Tower (2001)
- The Queene’s Cure (2002)
- The Thorne Maze (2003)
- The Queene’s Christmas (2003)
- The Fyre Mirror (2005)
- The Fatal Fashione (2005)
- The Hooded Hawke (2007)
Harrison, Cora (Mara, the King’s lawgiver; Burren series) [Ireland; 1509]
- My Lady Judge (2007) v.1
Hawke, Simon (fledgling playwright Will Shakespeare and would-be thespian
Symington Smythe) [London, England; 1580s-1600]
- Mystery of Errors (2000)
- Slaying of the Shrew (2001)
- Much Ado About Murder (2002)
- Merchant of Vengeance (2003)
Herman, George (Leonardo da Vinci and his companion, the dwarf Niccolo) [Italy;
1499] First book: A Comedy of Murders (1994) RPL does not have
- Tears of the Madonna (1996) v.2
Kalogridis, Jeanne - I, Mona Lisa (2005) (Madonna Lisa, the mysterious woman who
becomes the subject of da Vinci's famous portrait, gets caught up in a web of
dark secrets, treachery, illicit love, and murder ) [Florence, Italy; 1500s]
Kellerman, Faye - Quality of Mercy (1989) (a novel of intrigue in Elizabethan England)
[England; 1593]
Kerr, Phillip - Dark Matter (2002) (Christopher Ellis is assigned as an aide to Sir Isaac
Newton, warden of the Royal Mint, to uncover a counterfeiting ring.) [London,
England; 1696]
King, Ross - Ex-Libris (1998) (London bookseller Isaac Inchbold, hired to restore a
once-magnificent library that had been ravaged during the English Civil War,
becomes embroiled in the search for a missing manuscript and a conspiracy of
spies, smugglers, and forgery.) [London; 1660s]
Knight, Alanna (Tam Eildor, mystery-solving historical time-traveller)
- Dagger in the Crown (2001) [Scotland; 1500s] v.1
- Gowrie Conspiracy (2003) [Scotland; 1500s] v.2
Liss, David - The Coffee Trader (2003) (a Portuguese-Jewish trader desperate to
recover his lost fortune enters into a partnership with seductive Geertruid
Damhuis to introduce coffee to the city, and confronts a ruthless adversary.)
[Amsterdam, 1659]
Marston, Edward (Christopher Redmayne, architect, and Jonathan Bale, a constable;
Restoration Mysteries series) [England, 1688-1670]
- The King's evil (1999) v.1
- The Amorous Nightingale (2000) v.2 RPL does not have
- The Repentant rake (2002) v.3
- Parliament House (2006) v.5
- The Painted Lady (2007) v.6
Marston, Edward (Nicholas Bracewell, stage manager for an Elizabethan acting
company; Elizabethan Theatre Mysteries series) [England; 1588-90s ]
First book: The Queen's head (1989) RPL does not have
- The Fair Maid of Bohemia (1997) v.9 the first RPL has
- The Wanton Angel (1999) (v.10)
- The Devil’s Apprentice (2001) (v.11)
- The Bawdy Basket (2002) (v.12)
-
The
The
The
The
Vagabond Clown (2003) (v.13)
Counterfeit Crank (2004) (v.14)
Malevolent Comedy (2005) ( v.15 )
Princess of Denmark (2006) (v.16) RPL does not have
Pears, Iain - An Instance of the Fingerpost (as Charles II and the Church of England
try to quell residual opposition, Robert Grove, fellow of New College, is
murdered, and four different people give their versions of the incident.)
[Oxford, England; 1663]
Perez-Reverte, Arturo (Captain Alatriste, swordsman-for-hire) [Spain; 1620s]
- Captain Alatriste (2005)
- Purity of Blood (2006)
- Sun Over Breda (2006) RPL does not have
Phillips, Christi - The Rossetti Letter (2007) (Fearing that her research will be
rendered useless if a Cambridge professor proves his theory about a
seventeenth-century Venetian courtesan, Ph.D. candidate Claire Donovan agrees
to chaperone a troubled teen in order to gain passage to the professor's
presentation in Venice.) [Italy 1618 and present day]
Potter, Jeremy - The Mystery of the Campden Wonder (1995) (based on the true
sensational events which occurred in the market town of Chipping Campden: it
all began when the lady of the manor’s steward vanished. Sir Thomas Overbury,
an eccentric local magistrate investigates) [England; 1660-1662]
Redfern, Elizabeth - Auriel Rising (2004) (An exile from England, Ned Warriner
returns to his homeland to search for his beloved, Kate Revill, and becomes
caught up in the intrigues of the English court and the quest for the
philosopher's stone) [London; 1609]
Sansom, C. J. (hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake, during the reign of King Henry
VIII) [England; 1530s-40s]
- Dissolution (2003) v.1
- Dark Fire (2004) v.2
- Sovereign (2006) v.3
- Revelation (2008) v.4
Sedley, Kate (Roger the Chapman, peddler) [England; 1470s]
- Death and the Chapman (1992) (v.1)
- The Lammas feast (2002) (v.11)
- The Three Kings of Cologne (2007) (v. 16)
- The Green Man (v. 17) on order
Silbert, Leslie - Intelligencer (2004) (present day private investigator Kate Morgan
teams up with a European financier who is investigating a centuries-old
manuscript that documents the final days of an Elizabethan-era murder victim.)
[London, England; 1593]
Tey, Josephine - The Daughter of Time (1951) (A 20th-century policeman sees a
picture of Richard III and re-investigates Richard's role in the murder of the
princes in the Tower using all available information about Richard's time.)
[England; 1483-1485]
Tiffany, Grace - The Turquoise Ring (2005) (Shiloh ben Gozán flees the Spanish
Inquisition to live openly as a Jew in Venice, bringing with him an unusual
turquoise ring. As this ring is hidden, stolen, traded, lost, and found again it
shapes not just his life, but that of his great enemy. A re-interpretation of the
Shylock character in the Merchant of Venice.) [Venice, Italy; 1568]
Tobin, Betsy - Bone House (2001) (When Dora, the village prostitute, is found dead at
the bottom of a ravine, a young chambermaid serving the mistress of the local
manor embarks on a journey to unravel the mystery surrounding Dora's death.)
[England; 1603]
Thompson, David - Mirrormaker: intrigue, treachery and murder in Venice (1993)
(mercenary Lazaro Ruzzini looks into the murder of a powerful Venitian, getting
swept up in a web of political intrigue) [Venice, Italy; 1522]
Tonkin, Peter (Elizabethan detective Tom Musgrave, Master of Defense series)
[England; 1594]
- Point of Death (2002) (on the opening night of Romeo and Juliet. Mercutio is
murdered in the middle of the play, but it's real blood that flows.) v. 1
Tourney, Leonard (country constable Matthew Stock series) [England; 1601-1603]
First book: The Player’s Boy is Dead (1980) RPL does not have
- Witness of bones (1992) (v.7)
- Frobisher's savage (1994) (v.8)
Zimler, Richard - The Last Kabbalist Of Lisbon (1998) (as the Inquisition rages, a
young Jewish manuscript illuminator pretending to be Christian searches for
the murderer of his uncle.) [Portugal; 1506]
Novelist and the Stop You’re Killing Me databases were used for series information and plot
descriptions. The Historical Mystery Page website
(http://members.tripod.com/~BrerFox/historicalmystery.html) and the Crime Thru Time
website (http://www.crimethrutime.com/) were used to find book titles in the right time period.
March 2008