The Harper's Quine

Gil Cunningham #1

by Pat McIntosh

When newly qualified lawyer Gil Cunningham finds the body of a young woman in Glasgow Cathedral he is asked to investigate. He identifies the corpse as a woman he recognized at the May Day dancing in Glasgow Cross, the runaway wife of the cruel and unpleasant nobleman John Semphill. With Maistre Pierre, a French master mason involved in a new building at the Cathedral, Gil begins his search for the murder weapon in the lanes and yards of the city and to ask some difficult questions. His investigation leads him to Semphill and his household—his mistress and men-at-arms—dealing with the burgh constable, householders and musicians, as well as his feelings for the mason's lively daughter, Alys, whom he has come to find increasingly attractive. The complications of a second murder lead Gil and Pierre to the Isle of Bute. There Gil faces rumors of missing silver, a controversial elopement and the significance of a girl with a toothache, as well as a personal crisis around his family's expectations that he should join the priesthood. When the killer is finally exposed, justice strikes from an unexpected direction. A medieval murder mystery, The Harper's Quine picks up where Brother Cadfael left off.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Historical, Fiction, Medieval, Scotland

Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

McIntosh was born and raised in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Having begun to write at age seven, she credits the author who inspired her to write as "probably Angus MacVicar!" She lived and worked in Glasgow for many years before moving to the west coast of Scotland. Prior to making her mark as an author, she worked as "a librarian, a receptionist for an alternative therapy centre, taught geology and palaeontology, [and] tutored for the Open University."

Reviews

[Clemens Schoonderwoert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book in 2010, and its the 1st volume of the wonderful "Gilbert Cunningham" series, from the author, Pat McIntosh.

This first outing is set in the year AD 1492, and the main place of action will be Glasgow and direct surroundings with some escapades throughout Scotland.

Its a mystery that's interwoven with Scots language that should take the reader in towards this incredible mystery, for it will give the mystery a true authenticity as awhole.

Our main protagonist, the lawyer Gilbert Cunningham, is witness to a murder at the May Day dancing at Glasgow Cross, and finding the murdered woman at Glasgow Cathedral.

This woman is recognized as the runaway wife of the unpleasant nobleman John Semphill, and from that moment on the investigation will follow by Cunningham with the assistance of French master mason, Maistre Pierre, father of Alys who has caught Gilbert's eye.

A second murder will lead Gilbert Cunningham and Maistre Pierre to the Island of Bute, and over there they will find further clues connected to the first murder in Glasgow.

It a wonderful historical mystery, told by the author in a very engaging way interwoven with some Scots as well, and its a magnificent mystery that will end after some twists and turns, followed with a superbly executed plot, when finally the murderer will be exposed and dealt with, and given the Scottish way of justice.

Highly recommended, for this is a terrific start of this amazing mystery series, and that's why I like to call this first outing: "A Marvellous Scottish Mystery"!

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars - English Ebook

At the May Day dancing at Glasgow Cross, Gil Cunningham sees not only the woman who is going to be murdered, but her murderer as well.

Gil is a recently qualified lawyer whose family still expect him to enter the priesthood. When he finds the body of a young woman in the new building at Glasgow Cathedral he is asked to investigate, and identifies the corpse as the runaway wife of cruel, unpleasant nobleman John Semphill.

With the help of Maistre Pierre, the French master-mason, Gil must ask questions and seek a murderer in the heart of the city.

Satisfying start of an historical mystery series. Introducing Gil, who is training as a lawyer, but destined to be a priest due to a need to support himself.

As he unravels several mysterious deaths and disappearances, he also unravels his future.

If you like historical seted mystery you will like this novel.

[Eva Müller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am somewhat conflicted about this book. The characters were really great. Gil and Alys both have somewhat modern views views for their time but not so extreme that you feel like a 21st centutry person fell through time and is now enraged by the treatment of the poor/women/children or holds speeches about how capital punisment is wrong.
The mystery itself was quite well done, too. I did figure out who did it about halfway-through but I had no idea about the why and figuring out that together with Gil turned out to be quite fascinating, too. There was a lot of focus on the legal proceedings which is quite unusual for a historical crime-novel but somehow I found it really interesting even though I'm someone who wouldn't touch a contemporary legal thriller with a ten-foot pole. It was quite interesting to learn that at least during the time the book was set in the Scottish legal system was quite modern in many aspects (apparently women could divorce their husbands under certain circumstances and inherit land in their own right).
That was one of the occasions where I'd wished for some kind of postscript that got into some more detail (I must say that the author did a good job at giving the really neccessary information in the text without having massive infodumps but I would have liked to know how long these laws had been in effect, if they had really been enforced everywhere etc. and that bit about the harp. There's a scene where Gil explains that as the harper made a formal statement while having the harp in his hand it's legally binding and I would love to know more about the background of that).

Now there is one issue I have with this book and I am not sure if I should retract a star for that:
If you're not a native English-speaker you will need a lot of patience and a huge dictionary or preferably the e-book version of this book and an e-reader with a good in-built dictionary.
I do consider myself as quite a good English-speaker (studying the language and all that) and I have never read a book with that many words I'd never heard before.
There is generally quite some archaic language, some specialist terminology (mainly legal and clerical with some architecture thrown in) and then there's a lot of Scots.

I so could not resist that one
Like really A LOT. Not only wee bairns and bonnie lassies, quite a large part were words I couldn't find in my dictionary.
To be fair: The archaic and specialist terms were all in it and most of the Scots I could vaguely guess from the context what it meant (often rather creative insults) but I usually couldn't help myself and just had to google the exact meaning so again a glossary would have been welcome.

So considering that the mystery was a bit easy to see trough and the language-barrier I only give three stars but with a tendency towards four and I will read the next book in the series in the probably non-to-distant future because I really liked Gil and Alys and if the future cases get a bit less predictable this has the potentiol to become a good series.

[Maureen E · Rating 3 out of 5]

by Pat McIntosh

I picked this one up at a recent public library trip after a recommendation from Deb. I was hoping for a satisfying mystery with interesting characters and a clearly drawn setting. I definitely found all of that here.

Gil Cunningham, a young man struggling with his desire to do right by his family and his knowledge that he is not fitted for the priesthood, discovers a dead body. Because the body is on the grounds of Glasgow Cathedral, of which his uncle is a Canon, he is given the task of finding the dead woman's killer.

I'm sure that this book has been compared to Ellis Peter's Cadfael series. Oddly enough, I was more charmed by Gil's story than Cadfael's. I especially liked the sense that Gil's faith was very real to him--I felt that he took it seriously and that McIntosh took his taking it seriously, seriously. While I know the medieval church had its problems, there were some simple devout people. I very much enjoyed the fact that we were given a chance to see one of them.

I do have some lingering questions, mostly about the character of Alys. While I know from my classes that there were extremely intelligent and well educated women in the middle ages, such as Christine de Pizan, or even Heloise, I wasn't clear on how Alys had gained her knowledge. I believe that masons like her father were highly respected and wealthy men, but he didn't seem particularly educated (intelligent, yes, but that's not the same thing). Maybe McIntosh explains it a bit more in later books, but as it was I remained a bit puzzled.

I suppose I kept comparing this to Ellis Peters as I was reading, partly because of the medieval connection and partly because they're both mysteries and so on. While I thought McIntosh did a marvellous job of setting the scene--conveying a sense of the society and time period, I did miss the sense of place that is so intense in Peters.

Final verdict? I'll definitely be continuing with the series as I found this one both enjoyable and well-done.

Book source: public library

----

This series was definitely my favorite set of mysteries from 2010 (except for Dorothy Sayers, but it’s always except for Dorothy Sayers). Set in medieval Glasgow, they depict Scottish life lovingly and take religion seriously. The characters are both interesting and likable. What’s not to like? [2010 in books]

[Sarai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gil Cunningham is a medieval Scottish man tasked with investigating the death of a harper's woman. Learned in law and intended for the church, he is reasonable and does not jump to conclusions. With help from a mason (who has a lively, lovely, single daughter), Gil solves the crime - and finds himself a bride.

This is the first in a series, the rest of which I have not yet read. I was interested to see if I could find something kind of similar to the Cadfael series, but I am not a fan of medieval mystery author Michael Jecks, whose writing style I just can't get into. Pat McIntosh's writing style is not precisely like Ellis Peters, who wrote the Cadfael series and has what I consider a more "dense" style (it takes a while to get into the flow of the prose, and I can't really call it light reading), but it was even and detailed enough for my tastes. Not as light of reading as Agatha Christie, but a nice medium between Peters and Christie. I would recommend it to anyone who likes medieval settings and mysteries but doesn't want to get bogged down in detail and historical accuracy (though I did learn that they used to pack sore teeth with pigeon dung - ugh!).

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised to find a new medieval mystery series that could interest me with plausible and interesting characters, intricate series of events that must be ciphered and well described settings in Scotland. I thought only Ireland had early legal framework allowing women to own property, so now I will have to seek more information on that topic, a thing I like about reading historical fiction. I will look forward to reading the remaining books in this series.

[Kathleen Schilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, it definitely was a good start to the series

[Debbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know I am smitten by a good story if it has me seeking out more information on the time or place (Wikipedia has not been helpful this time, however).

Even though I figured out who the murderer was by the middle of the book, it was still quite enjoyable watching Maister Gil untangle the knot too. While I knew "who", I didn't quite figure out "why" until our protagonist did. Intertwined with the story is Gil who is given the duty to ferret out the murderer. He's a newly minted lawyer and on the threshold of the priesthood, but still deeply troubled by this decision. I worried that I'd have another irreverent look at the church, where all those of cloth were judgmental, greedy and selfish, but I was so very pleasantly surprised. It was obvious that McIntosh was trying to be fair-handed. Not to say there weren't a few anachronism in my opinion, but those mostly dealt with women's roles.

I found all the characters to be written with some depth and quite believable. McIntosh weaves quite a satisfying story .

[Jeannen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure how I heard of Pat McIntosh – possibly one of the Amazon “customers who bought this also bought…” lists. I wasn’t sure I was going to like the first one because of the use of dialect, some of which I still haven’t been able to figure out from the context, but once I got used to it, I really enjoyed it “The harper’s quine” and then went on to “The Nicholas feast.” I am lost in the Scots politics of Campbells and Montgomerys and Hamiltons and Cunninghams – maybe I need to read a history or take notes and draw diagrams. I don’t think I need to know that stuff to enjoy the series, though, of which there are at this point, alas, only two or three more.

[Dorian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book that I picked up because a friend enjoyed it. It's a murder mystery, set in late 15th-century Glasgow, a time and place about which I know pretty much nothing. Which is probably a good thing, because if there are any anachronisms I didn't notice them.

The setting is, in fact, very well drawn; I felt I was seeing a good picture of medieval Glasgow and its habits and customs. Characterisation is strong too, with even the minor characters clearly delineated. And the plot...yes, the plot was well done too, nicely paced and neither too complex nor too simple. Though I was at least as interested in the lives of the characters as in the solution to the mystery.

[deni Tomgirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable will be reading more by this author. never really thought of Glasgow being a mediaeval town before.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the plot of this novel but found the language used to be difficult to understand at times. The characters are all well developed but there are just too many of them to keep straight.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up at my library mostly because I liked the cover, and because I've been really wanting to get back into the historical fiction genre. I enjoyed the overall mystery of the book, the way that the pieces of the puzzle were put together to figure out just who murdered a beautiful young woman, and the other subplots that were in this book.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the writing as much as I did the idea that went behind this book. There was a lot of tell and not show, where facts were being thrown into your face with little time to digest what you were reading. The characters were not very developed and read the same as one another, and some of the characters seemed like they were being forced to be there with little explanation as to why they were there.

This book outlined domestic abuse in the medieval ages, and horrific abuse at that with a woman (the wife of an aristocrat having her ear cut off, scars on her back, and being branded by her husband). It had the same woman running away from her abuser and being found in a relationship with another man that was beneath her station, and ultimately being murdered a year or so after she left her abusive husband.

I liked the idea behind this mystery. I really did. It's not often that domestic abuse is really explored in historical mysteries, and to have an in depth look at what damage it causes the victim was definitely an added plus.

What I did not like about this book was how poorly developed the characters were. It was definitely very difficult for me to grow attached to any of the characters, including the main protagonists. As a result, I found it nearly impossible to really tell these characters apart. There were moments while I was reading this book that I had to go back to the beginning of a section and re-read it to know what was going on, what characters were present in a scene, and what was being said.

Now, I loved the fact that the author put Scottish slang into her story. However, as I am not a Scot and don't understand the Scot language, it was difficult for me to really understand what was being said. I had to guess a lot of the time by going off what the rest of the sentence was saying to know what was being said, and felt sympathy for Pierre who was a French mason, who wasn't at all fluent and had to have Gilbert speak French to him throughout the book.

I want to mention the fact that the writing of this book in certain sections felt disjointed. I feel this could be blamed on the fact that the author hardly describes scenes and most of the writing is in your face and is told to you.

This leads me to the characters. The lack of development, the way the author tries so hard to actually show well rounded characters in her story, and the way this book is written makes a lot of the dialogue and the relationships in this book forced. Pierre (who was present with the main character when the body was discovered) seemed to tag along as a sidekick with hardly any personality or character of his own, despite the fact that the author was trying to represent him as a strong personality.

The other issue that I had was with Alys. It became very clear to me that Alys was going to be the love interest in this story. She grabbed the attention of Gil early on in the book and he saves her from harm. She also seems to exist to help Gil solve the case, but her and her father (the French mason) seem to be carbon copies of one another, with hardly any character or personality. The relationship between Alys and Gil seems to be forced, and there were times when I couldn't see a relationship working out between the two of them.

As for the mystery of this book, when we met the character and the way this character was presented, I knew immediately who was behind the murder of this innocent woman. The way that Gil has great distaste for this particular character, and the way the character goes about trying to know what is going on in the investigation, it became very clear that the author was heading towards this character as being the perpetrator.

All in all, I did like the book. I would be interested in picking up the second book in this series, but I wish to focus on other books first that are higher up on my priority list.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a solid middle of the road 3/5. There is nothing special about it and many things bad about it but for all its pretty darn obvious killer (revealed ofc in the final bit of the final act) it had decent pacing, well formed if slightly trope-tastic characters, and a plot that was significantly less colander-like than some books I’ve read. Likewise, living and working in Glasgow for over a decade I enjoyed the setting, references to Rotten Row, St Mungo’s, etc. Not sure I’ll necessarily pick up book 2 in the series. This one was part of a charity shop haul and the name/setting were what made me pick it up (at £6 for a bag of books, it was a great deal and a broad genre haul), especially as these days quine isn’t really used in Glasgow but is back home in Aberdeenshire so I was intrigued as to whether there was also a Grampian link in the story (there is not).
3/5 for originality
4/5 for generally enjoyable characters
2/5 for mystery around whodunnit

[Lian Tanner · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delight it is to find a historical novel where the characters are not just modern people with a few 'thees' and 'thous' thrown in. I loved so much about this book, but the thing I loved most was the town and the people, and how convincingly they were drawn. It's the sort of novel you can immerse yourself in, trusting an author who has clearly done more than her fair share of homework, and now wields that knowledge with great skill and love. McIntosh doesn't show off her knowledge - there no great clumsy chunks of exposition, just a totally convincing world that we are privileged to glimpse for the length of the book. This has to be the next best thing to a time machine.

On top of that, I loved Gil and Alys, their immediate sympathy and their growing friendship. And there are ten more books!!!!

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the first book in a series, this is an excellent mystery. I read to get away from the here and now: this transports the reader back to 1492 in Scotland. It is a mystery that must be solved by digging into the private lives of many characters and putting the pieces together without the benefit of modern science. McIntosh doesn't leave the case to be solved by cold logic alone, she spices the tale up with a bit of romance and introduces interesting people whom will appear in future cases. (I read the second mystery first!)
I was slowed down by having to look up many Scottish words and the tangle of familial relations. I hope that McIntosh will consider a supplemental book like Lindsey Davis has done with her Falco series.

[Kimberly Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gil is studying to be a lawyer, with little or no prospects of property his plan is to enter the priesthood as well. While watching the May Day celebrations with an anonymous young woman, unbeknown to Gil he sees a murder & their victim pass in front of him.

Later as Gil begins to investigate the murder he also gets to know the anonymous young woman better.

I liked the story, I liked the characters. I will admit that I became impatient towards the end & bored with the narrative, so I skipped much of it. I knew who the murderer was....

I found the map in front of the book to be severely lacking as it didn't have all the landmarks on it.

[Rosemary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two and a half stars rounded up to three, because the setting was good, it was really quite well written, and it feels a bit unfair that I was waiting for it to end.

The problem was there were far too many characters, and the story wasn't interesting enough for me to be bothered keeping track of who was who. It did pick up a bit at the very end.

A few years ago I read the third book in the series "The Merchant's Mark", which I gave three and a half stars, so perhaps the series improves or some are better than others.

[Alyn Owens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although, like all readers we have our favorite authors, I do like to try new ones with different history timelines and characters. Although the description of the Scottish landscape was interesting and the main characters, Gil and Alys were good I found I was far too distracted trying to understand the lanuage to be fully immersed in the story which was somewhat predictable and could have been expanded on more to have given the reader more 'thinking time' on the outcome.
I may try the second book just to see if there is any improvement on the first.

[Cindie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book had some bloody parts, I enjoyed it immensely. I look for books written by native authors. This one was written by a Scot about Scotland in the middle ages. I needed to constantly look up what words and phrases meant, which resulted in me learning so much more about Scotland!!! I like the character development of both Gil and Alys as well as other main characters. The path that Gilbert needs to take to make life choices and survive in the uncertain times is very informative. I certainly will be asking my library to add the next in the series.

[Bryngel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this, who wouldn't, as it's set in medieval Glasgow?! It's very well written, and with likable, interesting main characters. It is a fairly straight forward mystery and not too hard to follow.

I did have to look up many of the Scottish words, but it didn't bother me that much as I felt I learned quite a lot by doing so, and after a while I actually got the hang of it. Ehrrm, well perhaps not "the hang of it" per se, but well enough then. A good start of a history mystery series with young Gil and Alys.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I knew from the beginning of the book that Gil wasn’t going to be a priest. It was pretty clear who was going to be his wife.

The author did a fair job of concealing the murderer but it wasn’t a complete surprise because the hints were so blatant. I’m not interested enough to read anything else by this author

[lisa hodges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lot to look up

I only found one historical inaccuracy, in this book. It was a hard read because I had to keep looking up words for their meaning; this did not put me off and reminded me of my friends from Glasgow.

This is worth reading for the murder investigation story and the insight into life as it was.

[Anji Kerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harpers Quine

I chose this book because I love historic crime novels. I only completed this book on a second attempt. It was hard to follow due an almost foreign language some of the time. Many of the Scottish words had no translation.
The story seemed to jump around and I did struggle to follow it at times. None the less, it was otherwise a good yarn.

[Hugh W Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done

A very good read, thoroughly enjoyed. Took me a while to get used to some of the Gaelic words but once into the swing it worked. The outcome was a bit predictable but nevertheless a good read

[Teddi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfinished. If a dictionary us required to understand when is going on, then a book isn't for me. The author has written this in the language of the Scots of the middle ages and I was having to continually guess what was in just about every sentence.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book in a new-to-me series. It's set in medieval Glasgow with likable main characters. I enjoyed the details about medieval life. While I wasn't too surprised with whodunnit, I liked the journey to the revelation. I will look for the next book in the series.

[Osvaldo Querin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent mediaeval murder mystery

This is an excellent atmospheric murder mystery which I couldn't put down. Gil Cunningham has a lot on his mind to resolve , which makes for a very entertaining read! Can't wait to read the next installment!

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this. Medieval murder mystery with interesting characters. Plan to read the series. Word of warning: It takes place in Scotland in 1494 and many of the historic references and Scots words are obscure to English readers.

[heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad read, but there was so much obscure terminology and I had to guess at the meaning. Each character had multiple different name/title/job references so it was confusing to keep track. I’m also wildly sick of patronizing adult male characters who get romantically involved with teenage girls.