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The bone fire / S. D. Sykes.
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Reviews
Booklist Reviews 2019 August #1
*Starred Review* The Somershill Manor mysteries began with Plague Land (2015), which concerned the first appearance of the Black Death in England in 1349, an event that catapulted series hero Oswald de Lacy from life as a monk to Lord Somershill, after his father and two brothers died from the plague. In this, the fourth in the series, it's 1361, and the Black Death has returned to England. Oswald seeks safety for his wife, four-year-old son, mother, and servant, in a friend's fortified castle, surrounded by water on three sides and with a cliff on the other. What happens is a blend of Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" and a country-house murder mystery. Sykes is brilliant at showing the elaborate precautions the castle owner, Geoffrey, has taken, with stores of provisions in cellars, an in-house well, and a drawbridge and portcullis to keep out anyone infected, or desperate to escape the plague. As with any good shut-off-from-the world country-house mystery, murders start piling up. Oswald, who has been thrown into investigative work since he became Lord Somershill, uses all his skills to stop the killings (it's fascinating to see him estimate time of death from the knowledge of morbidity gained from his former job of preparing monks' bodies for burial). An absolutely engrossing historical mystery. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.
Booklist Reviews 2019 August #1
*Starred Review* The Somershill Manor mysteries began with Plague Land (2015), which concerned the first appearance of the Black Death in England in 1349, an event that catapulted series hero Oswald de Lacy from life as a monk to Lord Somershill, after his father and two brothers died from the plague. In this, the fourth in the series, it's 1361, and the Black Death has returned to England. Oswald seeks safety for his wife, four-year-old son, mother, and servant, in a friend's fortified castle, surrounded by water on three sides and with a cliff on the other. What happens is a blend of Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" and a country-house murder mystery. Sykes is brilliant at showing the elaborate precautions the castle owner, Geoffrey, has taken, with stores of provisions in cellars, an in-house well, and a drawbridge and portcullis to keep out anyone infected, or desperate to escape the plague. As with any good shut-off-from-the world country-house mystery, murders start piling up. Oswald, who has been thrown into investigative work since he became Lord Somershill, uses all his skills to stop the killings (it's fascinating to see him estimate time of death from the knowledge of morbidity gained from his former job of preparing monks' bodies for burial). An absolutely engrossing historical mystery. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.
PW Reviews 2019 July #4
Set in 1361, Sykes's excellent fourth whodunit featuring Oswald de Lacy (after 2017's