The Poison Maiden by Paul Doherty

It's 1308 and England hovers on the brink of civil war. Edward II, his wife Isabella and the royal favourite Peter Gaveston Earl of Cornwall, have been forced to retreat to the King's folly. Just an arrowshot away lie the Great Lords and Philip IV of France, who are demanding that the Earl of Cornwall be charged with high treason. Edward is trapped, and worse, he has learnt that Philip has the 'Poison Maiden' on his side, a formidable spy who did untold damage during his father's reign. As Edward tries in vain to unmask the identity of the spy, Mathilde, handmaiden to the Queen, also attempts to identify the source of this threat. Soon the crisis spills over into violence. The Lords attempt to take Gaveston by force and the King and his Court, including Mathilde, are forced to flee. As the enemy closes in, Mathilde finds herself embroiled in a life and death struggle for the English crown.

The Poison Maiden is the 2nd book in the Mathilde of Westminster series where Paul Doherty tells the story of Richard II and Isabella's first years of marriage. I was intrigued by the first book and last week I "found" this one at the bottom of the TBR pile and decided to pick it up.

I have now read some reviews mentioning some historical errors. I must say I didn't notice them while reading as this is a period I'm not too familiar with, but on principle errors annoy me!

Like the first book there is a mystery to solve in this story and it starts with the old Mathilde remisniscing on past events while being interrogated by the king's men. The King is now Edward III, Isabella's son, and it is suggested that the queen took some secrets to her grave that Mathilde is decided to keep.

The story then jumps to the past and the year 1309. First it is a man who is found dead and then a woman. While there are not many clues about why they have been murdered, in the first death the murdered even tried to make it look like a suicide, there is talk about The Poison Maiden, a supposedly powerful spy working for Phillip of France who emerged under the old King and now is once again trying to do the same and destroy Isabella’s husband.

I’m afraid I don't think Mathilde is a very sympathetic character, she seems rather cold and not even her doomed love affair with Demontaigu helped me seeing her on a more favourable light. I must confess that I had less trouble warming up to Isabella who may well be on her way to be the She-Wolf of France but at least has good reasons to complain. Manipulation and deceit are very useful weapons when there's no alternative and considering Isabella's dislike of most people that surround her and how dangerous some of them may be we can easily feel some empathy. I also felt Mathilde moved about a bit too freely for one who should be attending the queen.

I was surprised by the identity of the Poison Maiden and I must admit Doherty did really well with that final twist. However, although I did like the setting and the political information regarding Gaveston, the Templars and the historical context in general,  I’m not sure it captivated me enough to continue with the series…

Grade: 4/5

The Cup of Ghosts by Paul Doherty

By 1322, Mathilde of Westminster was considered the finest physician in London. But in her years as lady-in-waiting to Princess Isabella, she was drawn into the murky politics of the English court, where sudden, mysterious death was part of the tapestry of life. Many years later, Mathilde looks back and chronicles her turbulent life. With her sharp, suspicious intellect ready to distinguish between a fatality and an unnatural death, Mathilde is confronted by a host of chilling murders. The source of these horrors is the fierce political rivalry between Philip of France and Edward of England. This manifests itself in a series of gruesome killings, one of which actually took place during Edward II's Coronation, when a knight of the Royal Household, Sir John Baquelle was crushed to death.

Paul Doherty's book was nothing like I imagined. I think in end it read more like an historical fiction story than a murder mystery. I think the most interesting part is how well Doherty knows the period he is writing about and how he makes the day's political machinations very much a part of his story. Sometimes you have a feel of the period but here you really are in the period with it's main characters, political decisions, templar's persecution and arranged marriages. And all this is an integral part of the plot. I liked how he gave plausible explanations for Isabella and Edward's behaviour in the beginning of their wedding.

I found the murder part in itself a bit confusing, there are a lot of characters, a lot of deaths and there's some lack of urgency for it's resolution. I was unprepared for how young Mathilde was going to be in the beginning and it seemed a bit unbelievable that she would know so much and understand the political intrincacies so well. Isabella, who in the beginning seems to be the stronger personality ends up dependent from Mathilde as her only friend. However the set of the period is so well done that I want to continue reading almost for it alone, I want to know more about that period in history and more about Isabella and how Doherty explains what went wrong with her wedding. There's also a portuguese character that has already been introduced as a villain so the lure to continue is irresistible.

Grade: B


Posted also at Aneca's World