The Lammas Feast

Roger the Chapman #11

by Kate Sedley

July 1478, and business is good for Bristol's bakers during the lead up to Lammastide - 'Loaf-mass', the ancient harvest festival. But the shady Jasper Fairbrother's baking days are over when he's found face down with a knife in his back. Suspicion immediately falls on the mysterious Breton who'd arrived that day and had been seen having an argument with Fairbrother. But when it emerges that the Breton is also a suspected Lancastrian spy, Roger the Chapman wonders if suspicion of murder is merely a convenient pretext for the authorities to hunt down the Breton. True, there is no reason for Roger to take an interest in the case, and should he when he ought to be peddling his wares to provide for his new baby boy? But his curiosity and sense of justice is piqued - and before he finds out who murdered the baker, he is to become more than a little personally involved as some of the things nearest and dearest to his heart come under threat.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Medieval, Fiction, Historical, Historical Mystery, British Literature

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Brenda Margaret Lilian Clarke, known by her pen name Kate Sedley, was an English historical novelist best known for her Roger the Chapman mystery series. Born in Bristol in 1926, she also published as Brenda Honeyman and Brenda Clarke.

Reviews

[Hapzydeco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good mystery - Roger Chapman once again pulls it out in the end.

[Marian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate Sedley again brings to life the social and religious customs of the 15th Century with this installment of the Roger the Chapman mystery series.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of period detail (15th century England) and a mystery about four murders/killings that may be related to each other. Bristol peddler Roger the Chapman figures it all out as usual.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really like Roger, at least in this book, so it was hard to like a book in his voice. The plot wasn't terrible, but everyone seemed so stupid and blind.

[Abcdarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had hopes for this series, but it's just not that well written.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like Sedley's characters and writing although it was rather obvious early on who the murderer was in this book. It was still an enjoyable read.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd had some idea of reading Kate Sedley's Roger the Chapman series when this book popped up when I was looking for something for my book groups 'Festivals' theme. I was interested to learn more about the Lammas Feast and attracted by the Bristol setting.

I can't say the geographical location rang any bells for me as I had hoped but that could be my own fading memories meeting the tremendous changes there have been in the city since medieval times. Roger clearly has quite a history behind him and making a living hawking haberdasheries gives a good footing for his investigative work. Personally, life is blossoming for him - his second wife has just given birth to their first child together and their previous two children get on like a house on fire. Not only that but his first wife's mother who had done so much of the rearing of his daughter is still around to help out. The insightfulness of Kate Sedley into the mind of a man settling down for the first time gives the book a freshness of appeal even to those who don't find spending fictional time in the medieval period attractive. But he is a right plonker on occasion.

There's not a huge amount about the Lammas Feast itself although the making and baking of intricate special breads forms part of the story. I was slightly uncomfortable about the particular use made of one character, uncertain whether this was all looking at her through the other characters' eyes or the attitude of the author. Overall the main plot didn't really engage me but there was enough around it that I'd like to start the series from the beginning.

[Cheri Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book.....read in 2 days.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember enjoying an earlier book in the series quite a bit. This one was adequate but had a couple of annoying traits. The story is told by a fifteenth-century chapman named Roger and centers on a series of murders in Bristol. The author makes a very good effort to get historical details right (though perhaps a little heavy-handed in the "stinky streets" school of portraying medieval cities), but Roger as narrator occasionally goes far beyond what a simple chapman (even one educated in a monastery) would know or bother to tell about medieval history. In particular, an aside about the origins of courtly love in the courts of Aquitaine rang untrue. Likewise, many of his turns of phrase seem to suggest a modern outlook rather than a medieval one, such as referring to Piers Gaveston as the "lover" of the late king.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thin and lame

[Myriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se lit, par contre, je ne suis pas certaine d'en lire d'autres de cette série.