Group Reads Discussion - Mistress of the Art of Death

[SRC Moderator, Moderator]

This is the discussion thread for the Winter 2021-2022 Group Read Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.

[Kim, Moderator]

Discussion post for Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters:

I love books told in epistolary form, and this one did not disappoint. It was just long enough not to get boring, clever in the extensive vocabulary, and scary in its depiction of a totalitarian society.

[Elaine]

I would not normally have chosen to read this book but it was the only one I had not read previously…alas, I did not enjoy it at all. The time period, the characters, the mystery, none of it was appealing and I came to dread having to read more. But, I persevered and made it through. This will hopefully be the only book that I force myself to read to complete the challenge. I gave strong consideration to rereading a different book but my stubbornness kicked in (probably to my detriment). Oh well, I hope others enjoy this book as every title deserves its fans.

[Lauren]

LAUREN JODI

Choosing a book for this season's group read was a challenge in and of itself as I have read both The Picture of Dorian Grey and The Mistress of the Art of Death, and the other 2 books are not really my cup of tea.

So, I decided to "re-read" this one in audiobook format as it is narrated by the incomparable Rosalyn Landor who always makes the stories come alive when she reads. This book was no exception.

I have read Franklin's entire series, and it was interesting to go back to where Adela's journey began. As a fan of both historical mysteries as well as thrillers, this book hit all the high notes. It is basically CSI in the Middle Ages and Franklin's attention to detail both historical and scientific is excellent. Nevertheless, some of the descriptions are quite gruesome and gritty, so it might not be to everyone's tastes.

[Emurphy]

I liked the "true crime" aspect of this book. I am not a fan of medieval settings, but the crime of the book, along with the close writing of the characters made the book much more enjoyable for me.

[Kai]

This was a 3-star read for me until the last 100 pages or so, which dropped it down to a 2-star read. (view spoiler)[Specifically, the moment when Adelia "joked" about sending Ulf back to the pit two seconds after talking about how they were going to be dealing with the trauma of their experience forever and that Ulf might not have the capability to cope based on his age. (hide spoiler)]

I liked the medieval setting and thought Franklin did a good job of bringing it to life. Unfortunately, it was also the source of a lot of my problems with the book. Although there is historical basis for Adelia's character, I felt a lot of the character choices were anachronistic to their times. For example, Adelia is hyper-aware that she could be burned as a witch if people find out that she is a doctor, but she's constantly revealing herself as a doctor. Not to mention, I'm not a big fan of historical books where the characters have knowledge people wouldn't develop for centuries. It's a cheap way to make the character seem smart.

I thought the writing was interesting, but also frustrating. I enjoyed all of the passages dealing with the setting, such as life for Jews in England at the time, the use of hostages during the Crusades, etc. I like history, so that might have played into it. However, with the mystery aspect, there was a delay-relay about some of the things Adelia observes but doesn't bother to tell the reader until later, which dampened the impact of the clues.

[Nikki]

I choose this book to read for the group reads as I had already read the other books available and I like to read the new to me books. I was skeptical at first, as it looked like something I would not normally read. However I was quickly drawn in to the true crime aspect and a woman in an unusual position for the time period. I don't know if I will read the next one, but this was entertaining as a new to me type of book.

[Jessica]

Bookwrm526

This one has been on my TBR for quite some time, so I'm glad I finally got the push to read it, but I'm not sure if I'm happy to have read it?

I liked the characters, especially a lot of the secondary characters. I agree with Kai that Adelia did a really bad job of actually hiding who she was as she was supposed to, but overall she was a good character. I was happy that she didn't marry at the end of the book, but that they seem to have gotten their "happy for now" anyway.

I didn't like the over the top violence of the ending, when the rest of the book had hinted at the violence more so than describing it outright. I saw the animal death as unnecessary and I always hate reading about it. The anachronisms, while I understand the author's reasoning, got under my skin sometimes, especially when she made a nod to things Adelia wouldn't be allowed to do, but then kind of let her get away with doing them anyway. In the end I settled on three stars, but I went back and forth between 2.5 and 3.5 over the course of reading it.

[Cat]

I enjoyed this ok enough, though I'm not going to be rushing out to read #2 in the series!
I actually liked Henry's cameo at the end, as it highlighted why he has such a good claim to be the most impactful of England's kings.

[Shelby]

I enjoyed a lot about this book. It was interesting to see the twelve hundreds paired with a murder mystery. The time period is truly medieval and is one of the best aspects of the book. There's clearly a lot of research done that equates to a deep understanding of the period of time. Ultimately I liked Adelia as a character as well. She's brusk and straight forward. She finds England frustrating as she isn't able to fully be the doctor she is trained to be and must hide behind surrogates which just isn't in her nature.

The mystery really wasn't that difficult to figure out. I was pretty sure I knew where things were going and wasn't surprised by how it all shook out. But the tension and the action built well for me and I was completely with Adelia as she was closing in during the final climatic confrontation.

I think if I had one complaint about the novel it was in the development of the "romance" of the story. Her relationship that develops here wasn't very well fleshed out for me. Especially as it's one that isn't just a one off attraction sort of thing.

Still I found Adelia intriguing and am curious to see what the king of England will have in store for her next as he's not quite ready to let her leave his service and return to her own.

[Ceelee]

CEELEE

I chose this book because I already had a copy in my personal library but had never read it. I really enjoy historical novels but generally don't read many novels earlier than the Elizabethan period. I knew enough about the time period because of reading about the Cerussites and Elenore of Aquitaine so at least I wasn't completely clueless going in. The books was still a challenge for me because of the small print of my copy but I got through it. i really like Adelia. She definitely knew her stuff and had been trained well. I am sure it was probably an unwelcome surprise that people in England looked down on her as a woman who practiced medicine. The mystery was part of the reason I wanted to read the book. It was interesting to see how she was able to figure out "whodunit" but a little predictable. The process was more interesting than the result. As others have mentioned it seems impossible that she would have so much knowledge of her craft but I have seen the History Channel TV show, Ancient Aliens, and they have made note of many things that exist in our time that also existed doing ancient times with proof in the ruins they have discovered. So that detail wasn't too surprise to me. The writing is really good and the characters were interesting but as others have mentioned there seemed to be too many and that caused some confusion It really is like a CSI Medieval England. I'm surprised CBS hasn't made a series out of it. They seem determined to have one in every city in the U S A so why not another century? The romantic part was a little silly in my opinion becuase that is a trope that is used in every soap opera and lots of romance novels for decades. I suppose the author thought it would make the romance reader happy but I thought it was just silly. And the tax collector, too. Egad!
I am interested in reading more of Adelia's journey so I am pretty sure I will l read more in this series.