Death Comes as Epiphany
Number 1 in series
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Catherine LeVendeur, a young scholar in 12th-century France, has come to conquer her sins at the Convent of the Paraclete: famous for learning, prayer and its abbess, the fabled Heloise.
When a manuscript the convent produced for the great Abbe Suger disappears, rumours surface that the book contains sacrilegious passages and will be used to condemn Heloise's famous lover, Peter Abelard.
To save the convent and protect all she holds dear, Catherine must find the manuscript and discover who altered the text. Risking her life, and the wrath of Church and family, she confronts an evil older than Time itself . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A medievalist breathes life and vigor into the scholastic debates and religious controversies of 12th-century France in this entrancing mystery debut. Catherine LeVendeur, a young novice and scholar at the Convent of the Paraclete, is sent by the Abbess Heloise on a perilous mission to find out who is trying to destroy the reputation of the convent and, through it, that of the abbess's onetime lover and patron, theologian Peter Abelard. A psalter created at the convent and given as a gift to the powerful abbot Suger of Saint-Denis is later rumored to contain heretical statements in its accompanying commentaries. Catherine, in the role of a disgraced novice, must find the book and copy the disputed passages to determine if they are forgeries. Further complicating her search, Saint-Denis's master stonemason, Garnulf, is murdered, a crime which may be tied to the sinister hermit Aleran and the rebuilding of the splendid Abbey of Saint-Denis. Re-entering worldly life, the young novice must face both her sometimes disapproving family and her attraction to Garnulf's mysterious apprentice, Edgar. Newman skillfully depicts historical figures and issues in a very different age, one in which piety and great beauty coexist with cruelty.
