Book Recommendation

Another book recommendation

The Unquiet Bones

(Hugh de Singleton's chronicles, book I)

by Mel Starr

 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HPUM58S?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks 

      Until this title came up as a suggestion for a to read, and at the time was greatly reduced in price, I had never heard of this series or the author.

      I was missing out! But what a treat to find a completely new author and new series to sink my mystery loving teeth into. Of course I've only read the first one, but often the author gets warmed up and the next books are as good or even better.

      This is the fourth series I've tried over the years with a back drop of the middle ages.  It may be my favorite; time will tell.

     Hugh is the younger son of a knight, and not even the decimation of a bout of the black plague puts him in line for the family's land and a modest inheritance.  With limited funds for an education he must find a way to earn his living. After a time of considering a priestly occupation, he finds himself fascinated by medicine, and surgery in particular. After a period of study and training he starts life in his chosen profession, where fortune smiles upon him when he successfully treats the broken bone of a wealthy yet worthy man of means.   Sir Gilbert convinces him to leave Oxford and become the surgeon in his own holdings.

     Part of the charm of this story is our hero. He is gifted with a great mind, common sense, integrity, honesty, compassion, and some spiritual maturity that is rare for the day. But the icing on the cake is his wonderful satirical sense of humor, tempered with modesty and a generous dose of bashfulness. If Hugh's self-description is accurate, he has nothing to brag about in the way of physical attributes, but the reader does begin to wonder about that....

     Another plus for me? The author does not sugar coat how difficult life was seven hundred years ago. It was frankly brutal, especially for the poor. Yet it is presented in such a way that does not exclude hope and zest for life, even if was often a very short life. Mel Starr knows medieval history and it shows. There are a few examples of surgery in progress that to me were realistic yet again, not overly graphic. (Of course I retired from a medical profession so others may not agree.)

     You can read a synopsis of the story itself when you pull it up on Amazon or another retail site of your choice. Let me add that the plot is well thought out, with a few surprise glitches along the way, as Hugh realizes he has a lot to learn about identifying the proper clues from a set of bones. 

     It was a surprise to find thirteen chronicles to date in Mel Starr's medieval mystery series. Sadly The Unquiet Bones is no longer on sale, but as I post this the 2nd chronicle, A Corpse at St. Andrews Chapel, is.