"A brief, useful history of the conquerors who came from East and West to build a series of states that continue the fight to this day."
The author of The Real History Behind the Templars (2007) chronicles how the first two crusades helped establish the face of the Middle East.
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"Newman (The Witch in the Well, 2004, etc.) combines history and mystery in a carefully crafted, delightful tale filled with unsentimental scenes of Portland's rowdy past."
A wealthy widow and her son, arriving in Portland, Ore., to bury her husband in 1868, find themselves in unexpected danger.
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"Complexity in characterization—not all Jews are good, not all Christians bad—and period detail serve Newman well, but the story bogs down in plot complications as mind-boggling and interminable as the Crusades."
Catherine LeVendeur's Jewish cousin Solomon gets his very own medieval mystery.
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"Despite some hints of a deus ex machina, a satisfying journey through medieval France."
Catherine LeVendeur, expecting her third baby during the cold fall of 1147, can manage raising two children and running a household in Paris with her loving husband Edward, who is learning the mercantile trade from Catherine's Jewish relatives.
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"Newman makes it well worth the contemporary effort necessary to probe motives that are obscure because they're medieval, while never forgetting the more deeply mysterious issues underlying social change."
After a decade of marital and sleuthing partnership in 12th-century France, merchant's daughter Catherine LeVendeur and her noble husband Edgar find themselves, in midlife, assuming parental responsibilities and salvaging family finances in a world upended by social chaos.
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"A score of subplots, a plethora of mostly unmemorable characters, and a glut of bloody encounters—all make for a wearying, no doubt historically correct, chronicle."
Another chapter in the 12th-century life of Catherine LeVendeur (Strong As Death, 1996, etc.), now living in Paris with husband Edgar, son of Scottish Lord Waldeve, and their infant son James.
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"A clutter of subplots; repetitive chronicles of hardships and discomforts great and small; the coyly described sex life of Catherine and Edgar; and frequently leaden dialogue make for a meticulously researched but long, wearying journey—for the reader as well as the pilgrim."
This fourth in a series, set in the 12th century (The Wandering Arm, 1995, etc.), finds scholarly heroine Catherine LeVendeur, once a novice nun, now married to Scottish nobleman Edgar, on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St.
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"And though Catherine's buoyant persona provides a bit of charm, this is primarily a meticulously researched treat for history buffs."
The third in Newman's scholarly series finds onetime novice nun Catherine LeVendeur (The Devil's Door, 1994, etc.) in Saint- Denis, in the throes of painful childbirth that ends with a stillborn daughter.
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"Top-notch sleuthing, classy with Latin saws and observations."
Fresh from her sleuthing in Death Comes As Epiphany (1993), 12th-century novice nun Catherine LeVendeur will leave the convent of Abbess HÇloãse and marry Edgar, student of the now frail Peter Abelard.
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"Like the author's Guinevere trilogy (Guinevere Evermore, 1985, etc.), this offers a most likable heroine who wears well in the stretch."
Medieval mystery and murder, travel and travail, in 1139 France—as a spunky, sensible, determined novice nun joins forces with a sculptor's apprentice to uncover some evil doings.
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