The Widow's Tale
Berkley Pub Group
Mystery: Historical
January 30, 2004
ISBN-13: 0425200183
Available in: Hardcover
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The Widow's Tale
by Margaret Frazer
Recently widowed and still grieving, Cristiana Helyngton finds her life wrenched apart by her late husband's greedy and ambitious relatives, who are determined to have control of her lands and her daughters. Kidnapped, defamed, and imprisoned in a nunnery, she must find a way to save herself before she can save her children. For Dame Frevisse of St. Frideswide's nunnery, Cristiana is at first simply a duty among others, but questions rise and troubles deepen--and then turn deadly. Cristiana, to secure her freedom and save her daughters, must use a secret entrusted to her by her husband as he was dying-but it is a secret that could bring down those lords nearest the king and destroy, rather than save, those most dear to her. Frevisse, drawn into trouble far deeper than she initially imagined, must decide where her deepest loyalties lie: to the truth-or to England's peace. And whatever she chooses, in the end her help may be of little use against the ruthless men threatened by the secret on which all of Cristiana's hopes depend.
Other Books by Margaret Frazer
Margaret Frazer's Bio
To begin with, 'Margaret Frazer' was two people, both interested in writing and in medieval England, one of them with modern murder mysteries already published, the other with file drawers, shelves, and notebooks full of research on England in the 1400s. They met in a historical recreationist group called the Society for Creative Anachronism and joined forces to write The Novice's Tale, the first in a history mystery series centered on a Benedictine nun, Dame Frevisse, of a small priory in Oxfordshire.
During their collaboration, the authors worked together by first laying out the general idea of a story. Then the 'Frazer' half of the team developed the plot and characters in detail and wrote the first draft. The 'Margaret' half then re-worked that into a second draft, the 'Frazer' half re-worked that, and then they did the final draft together. The collaboration worked well through six books and two award nominations—an Edgar® for The Servant's Tale and a Minnesota Book Award for The Bishop's Tale—before the 'Margaret' half grew tired of the series and amicably returned to the 20th century, leaving the 'Frazer' half to continue the series, with an Edgar® nomination for The Prioress' Tale.
Margaret Frazer writes stories set in medieval England because she greatly enjoy looking at the world from other perspectives than the 20th century. Her brief college career was as an archaeology major with writing intended as a hobby, but with one thing and another, her interest came down to medieval England with writing as her primary activity, only rivaled by my love of research. Frazer learned about medieval English politics, religion, philosophy, sociology, economics—all the multi-layered elements that go into making the lives of people in any time period. So when the chance came to write a mystery series set in medieval England, she took it.
In everyday life, Margaret is Gail Frazer, living in the countryside north of Elk River, Minnesota, with four cats and not enough bookshelves. Over the years she's had various jobs, including librarian, secretary, reseacher for a television station, gift shop manager, and assistant matron at an English girls' school. Married once upon a time but not anymore, she has two well-grown sons. She writes more often than not, and when once she moaned "I have to get a life," her family informed her, "You have one. It's in the 1400s." That seems to sum up things rather nicely.
Living a devout life in Medieval England, Sister Frevisse is sinfully good at discerning the mysteries of the soul...and solving the crimes of the human heart.