Willows for Weeping by Felicity Pulman
I can’t believe it. I have adored Pulman’s Janna Mysteries from the moment I opened book 1, and Random House was giving away book 4 FOR FREE!! Thank you, thank you. And even better, I had a long train ride home that night.
Anyway, about the book. For those of you who have been reading the Janna mysteries much of this will be old news, but for the rest of the world I will try to catch you up. Janna is a teenager who has been raised by her single mum. So what? Well, the story is set in 12th century England, a time when single mums were not so common. Janna’s mother was the village midwife and herbalist and used her skills to support the two of them. Eventually however a new priest came to the parish and condemned Janna’s mother as a witch.
Now Janna is alone. She has learned some of her mother’s skills, but certainly not all. And over the previous three books Janna has been adding to her knowledge and investigating her mother’s death and her own parentage.
In book 4, Janna is far more confident of her skills and she has obtained some hard evidence about her mother’s early life. She decides to visit the abbey where her mother was a novice and see if anyone there can help her. Along the way she travels with a troupe of entertainers for safety. Strangely a dashing young nobleman joins the troup, apparently attracted by Janna. And then the murders start.
Pulman admits that she was inspired to write these books by the Cadfael series written by Ellis Peters. I remember one delightful summer when I managed to read all 20 of that series. The Janna Mysteries are not really a ripoff, more an homage designed to lead younger readers into Medieval history. But as a Cadfael reader, I was well familiar with the Civil War between Stephen and Matilda. In this book, that dispute becomes very important.
OK, four down. All wonderful. When can I get my hands on book 5. Janna is awfully close to finding her father, and I can’t wait.
