Attain Forsaken Soul (Medieval Mystery, #5) Curated By Priscilla Royal Ebook

think I would have enjoyed this book more if I had realized it was part of a series, This was number five I believe, The story was good but I was missing elements most likely supplied in the previous books, The characters are very much into their own religious and often tormented thoughts, This reader was unable to care about any of them in a relatable way, However the writing is good and

tbe narrator of this audio book was very pleasing, I really liked this and only wished I'd been able to read the first four, This was the audio version and the narrator did a great job! I'm not completely sure who the "detective" was in this because it seemed as if there was a collective of people in the town all investigating the mysterious poisonings.
The mystery was well plotted and the characters were engaging, There was amazing historical detail in this that was fascinating and if I hadn't been driving while listening I would have been searching the internet and dictionaries for more information to further explain some of the tidbits of the life portrayed in this novel.


Just an aside: About the only complaint I have is that it would have been really nice to have had the "Author's Notes" information in the beginning as there was quite a bit of historical information that would have been nice to have up front.
Given that this was audio there was no way for me to look up terms or other information that I didn't completely understand as there would have been in a regular book or an ebook.
Hearing the notes at the end I had a big "aha" and there were only a couple of instances in the notes that referred to characters in the book.
Forsaken Soul, by Priscilla Royall, is the continuing story of the Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal Priory and the monk, Thomas, There are many characters that are used in all the stories but they are central to all the stories,
Crowner Ralf has returned with a new baby daughter whose mother had died with her birth, There is also the anchoress, who is scaring many by meeting with visitors at her window at night, These two have upset many and then there is the murder of Martin the Cooper, while at the local inn, by poison, This title could be not just about the murdered Cooper but about several of the characters and how they perceive themselves,
This entre into Priscilla Royalls growing list of books is best used this time to grow the characters and give them more depth, Much as I enjoyed the story, the way Thomas is tortured by the demons in his soul and starts to come to grips with it with the help of the new anchoress, Juliana.
Crowner Ralf returns also as a much more confused man who has much trouble with seeing things clearly because he will not/cannot see things as he once did, without prejudice.
Prioress Eleanor too has to come to grips with many things including her discovery of Brother Thomas working for a spymaster and not just giving his fealty to her and the Priory.


This is a story, which is much more focus on interpersonal relationships than the previous books, The interplay between the main characters shows also how each sees themselves as more the center of their own worlds and how things seen and said can be wrongly interpreted.
I cannot wait until I get my hands on the next volume,
Good read on village life,

Royal has created a believable medieval village and gives us a picture of the contradictions and queries that religious teaching at the time might have prompted in the minds of the more thoughtful.
If you enjoy a mystery be warned that guilty party is evident early on, Nevertheless the psychology of those near the dire murders is interesting, Excellent mystery. Very well done. I figured out the culprit very early on, which was kind of disappointing, It's extremely obvious. Great group of characters, though, so I'll be moving on to the next book in the series, Priscilla Royal writes a good yarn in the medieval mystery genre,
Three people are poisoned, Who did it and how
Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas help solve the mystery, The summer ofis peaceful for most of England, but not for Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal Priory, Her friend, Crowner Ralf, is newly widowed with a baby, And her new anchoress is welcoming visitors to her window at night: one of them a man the prioress secretly loves, Now his loyalty to her as head of Tyndal Priory is suspect, Then Martin the Cooper is poisoned at the local inn, Martin had a wealth of enemies, The killer could be any of them, No one likes the direction the evidence points, but God's justice must be rendered even for the most forsaken soul, Against an authentic backdrop of medieval life and lore, Royal once again brings alive characters who are true to their period yet exhibit emotions and feelings thatstcentury readers will recognize as their own.
Publishers Weekly starred review. Priscilla Royal lives in Northern California, Forsaken Soul is her fifth Medieval Mystery, www. priscillaroyal. com The constant questioning of their souls is getting kinda boring, . . the mystery is good, but the actual investigation by Thomas amp Eleanor is pretty shallow, Crowner Ralf takes more of the center stage in this, Apparently, this book is the fifth in a series, I think that I would have enjoyed it far more had I realized that at the onset, I don't think that it works terribly well as a standalone book, Another slow one to start but I'm still near the beginning, Maybe I waited too long between books but I felt like I missed something the whole time I was reading, Example: Apparently there is this letter received by Prioress Eleanor from her aunt Sister Beatrice that exposes Brother Thomas as a spy.
The reader is never told when this letter arrived or really what is says, It was a little confusing as Prioress Eleanor seemed to struggle with the knowledge for most of the book, I would imagine it's building to a conclusion but it would be nice to know a little more about how the whole thing came about in the first place.
The letter, I mean. The reader has always known about Brother Thomas Were enjoying listening to this series but I did feel that they took a ridiculously long time to figure out “who done it” this time.
The mystery wasn't so mysterious I guessed who the murderer was pretty quick but the medieval setting intrigues me, I will read more of this series, Knew the murdered from about Chapter, Don't mind the series for being fairly fluffy historical whodunnits, but you spend most of the book thinking the characters are idiots/wilfully ignoring the people they should be questioning.
The story of this mystery was well developed and most of the setting seemed pretty believable, not that I know much about that time beyond fiction, but the presentation of the populace as firm believers in Christianity seemed a little to complete to be true.
They seemed to be all pretty well brainwashed, which I doubt was the case, human nature being what it is, The main character has her obvious failings, but even these are presented within an absolute faith in the current interpretations of the church,

I may try another of this series, to see if my analysis is valid, Skip this book. Dry and dull. This book was set in theth centuryin a priory and the local township, It dealt primarily with the prioress and the doomed characters, and although I would have liked a broader view, it was overall a pretty good read.
I would have liked to have a little more thoughts about the history of the characters, but since this is apparently not the first in the series, that may explain the lack of background.


The characters are interesting, but since I don't have their background, they seemed a little paperdollish to me,

Unfortunately, I figured out rather quickly whodunnit but people kept dying while the characters kept running around verbally bludgeoning each other,

However, it was very interesting in that it was truer to history it did not pretend that people were perfectly chaste, or that priests never had sex.
Set in the summer of, Royals fifth historical finds Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal beset by various problems, including the death of a friend and her attraction to a monk.
The Midwest Book stated, “The latest Priscilla Royal medieval mysteryis a clever historical whodunit that uses vivid background to enhance an engaging investigation, ” I'd rather give this.stars. The characters continue to grow and develop in this series, but it is the second in which the solution of the mystery is through sudden intuitiongetting a little samey.
Once again, I found that I no longer cared about the characters, which is never a good thing, Priscilla has a degree in world literature from San Francisco State University, where she discovered the beauty of medieval literature, She is a theater fan as well as reader of history, mysteries, and fiction of lesser violence, She lives in Northern California and belongs to the California Writers Club and Sisters in Crime, .