Dark Waters Rising
-
- $6.99
-
- $6.99
Publisher Description
A storm is coming . . . Can nun sleuth Hildegard solve the murder of a lay sister before the rising flood waters trap her with a cunning killer?
Autumn, 1394. All is not well at Swyne Priory. Dissension has arisen amongst the nuns. The new novices whisper in corners, spreading malicious rumours and sharing dark secrets.
The Prioress gives Hildegard an order: search out the cause of this unrest, and put a stop to it. But before Hildegard can investigate, she’s forced to deal with a new problem: the arrival of a mysterious stranger in the middle of the night, claiming his life is in danger.
Hildegard isn’t sure whether to believe him, but when a body is discovered near the priory, she’s soon plunged into a dark and dangerous puzzle where nothing is as it seems. All she knows for certain is that a storm is coming, threatening to cut the priory off from the outside world and trap them with a killer . . .
Medieval mystery at its finest – and a great pick for readers who love sleuthing monks and nuns like Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma, Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael and Cora Harrison's Reverend Mother.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of Clark's serpentine 12th and final Hildegard of Meaux medieval mystery (after 2021's Murder at Beaulieu Abbey), the Prioress of Swyne asks Hildegard, a Cistercian nun, to discover why the young novices whisper among themselves and seem so unsettled. As Hildegard tries to find out what motivates Bella and Rogella, rebellious twins who were clearly committed to a religious life against their will, a more immediate crisis arrives: a strange man banging on the door at night begging to be let inside. He claims to be a musician favored by Richard II and is now fleeing an assassin, but Hildegard doubts his story. Then a lay sister goes missing. The mysteries pile up, turning more violent, while a flood threatens to engulf the priory and at the very least cut the monastics off from help. Meanwhile, Hildegard also battles her attraction to the moody Hubert, Abbot de Courcy. The multistrand plot loses momentum in the middle, but the pace quickens toward the end as the action builds to a satisfying conclusion that brings resolutions that go to the heart of tension-riven 14th-century England. Readers will be sorry to see the last of the strong-willed Hildegard.
