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ST. OSWALD'S NICHE
By: Laura Frankos
Ivy Books: New York
1991 (pb)
This long out-of-print little gem is an old-fashioned
“cozy” mystery with a strong history and archaeology framework behind it.
It would be a perfect read for a blustery winter weekend!
Jennet Walker, a UCLA Ph.D. candidate in medieval
history, is in London to give a paper on Anglo-Norman studies, when the
novel opens. A side trip to Canterbury has her meeting, unbeknownst to her,
Professor Edwin Durrell, one of the world’s leading medieval scholars. In
true graduate student fashion, she delivers an impromptu, rather pedantic,
lecture on Thomas a Becket. She discovers who Durrell really is—much to her
embarrassment-- when he appears to listen to her paper back in London!
But to her relief, she finds that not only was Durrell
amused by her Beckett lecture on the streets of Canterbury, but he was very
impressed by the erudition of her paper and the research behind it—so much
so that he offers her a job as his assistant on an archaeology excavation in
the Abbey of St. Oswald of Northumbria in the city of York. She hesitates
at first—she much prefers the comforts of nice, warm libraries to the dirt
and drudgery of excavation—but Durrell requires an assistant who is
knowledgeable in medieval Latin and German, to help edit his forthcoming
book on medieval monasticism, help him transcribe excavation notes, and most
importantly, to help him translate manuscript chronicles of the Abbey
recently unearthed by his crew. She excitedly accepts his offer and eagerly
moves into the dormitory in York that houses not only the crew from
Durrell’s St. Oswald project, but also other young archaeologists working
two other local excavations: a Roman site and a Viking dig.
Her experience begins with the exciting discovery of a
treasure hoard found in one of the niches beneath the abbey—a hoard that
includes a silver casket, coins, paintings, and four gold chalices, one of
which Durrell shows to a gathering at his home, a gathering that includes
crew members from all three York projects. But Jennet’s experience begins
to turn sour as she quickly senses the hostility of Leslie Stafford, her
predecessor as Durrell’s assistant, and matters turn even grimmer when items
begin disappearing from the rooms of the various crew members, and
suspicions are cast in Jennet’s direction. Then tragedy strikes the St.
Oswald project when the treasure is stolen from its storage area in the
Abbey, and only the gold chalice, which Durrell had kept in his home for the
aforementioned gathering, remains. As the newest person on the project,
even more suspicions are directed at Jennet.
What follows is the chronicle of the unraveling of the
sense of camaraderie among and between the crews working on the three
York-based projects as each member seems to become more secretive,
suspicions widen to include virtually everyone and threatens to tear apart
the very fabric of the little archaeological community. Jennet and
Matthew Jonas, a fellow American and UCLA Ph.D. candidate in Classics, team
up to try to solve the mystery of the vanished treasure trove, but the hunt
turns dangerous as first Matt is attacked by an unseen assailant as he
searched dorm rooms for clues, and then later Jennet is accosted by a figure
dressed in the robes of a medieval cleric—complete with miter and crosier!
While the hunt for the missing treasure goes on by both
the police and the archaeologists, another niche is opened and more treasure
is found—including what may be the remains of Girard, a notorious 12th
Century archbishop of York, who been accused in his time of necromancy and
other ecclesiastical crimes. Could Jennet’s assailant be the shade of
Archbishop Girard—a ghost displeased with the predations of the
archaeologists? Or more likely, was it the Abbey thief, intent upon
discouraging further investigations and who might very well be plotting to
snatch the rest of the St. Oswald treasure?
The reader will have to find out for him or herself the
answer to the question of whodunit plus the answers to other questions, not
the least of which is will Matthew, who seems incredibly clueless for a
really smart guy, ever figure out that he really loves Jennet and that she’s
crazy about him? The reader may also glean a significant amount of
knowledge about medieval ecclesiastical history and culture and have fun
while doing it!
While long out of print, copies for as little as one
cent (plus postage) can be purchased from Amazon.com. Three trowels for
this cute little cozy mystery.
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