The Unquiet Bones, by Mel Starr
The murder mystery genre, like ice-skating, has a number of "compulsories". A puzzle, of course: whodunnit? This may be rendered more complex (whodunwhat? ... was anything actually done at all?).
Young surgeon Hugh de Singleton, just getting his medical practice started, is called on by the local lord, Gilbert Talbot, to examine some bones that have just been found during the emptying of the privies of Bampton Castle. Who is it? What happened? When?
A bit of forensics is another crime novel "compulsory". Hugh first determines that the skeleton -- with just a little bit of hair and some ligaments -- was a young woman. None were missing in the castle, nor even in the town.
Then Hugh finds a nick in a rib, consistent with a blade sliding through, into the heart. The girl had been murdered. And too, he finds a small bone from one of her feet that had been broken and healed. That is enough detail to justify combing the surrounding villages... and the story unrolls...
Hugh de Singleton's inquiry meets all the compulsory requirements, and adds a few free figures. A bit of impossible romance. Some serious red herrings. Solid characters from all the classes of medieval England's rigid class system.
It is interesting to compare The Unquiet Bones to the previous book I reviewed here, C. J. Sansom's Heartstone . Modern crime novels may be placed in small towns, or at the center of political power in Washington. Sansom's protagonist, Matthew Shardlake, is not quite at the center of power, but he is just at the edge. He has suffered insult from Henry VIII himself, and has known Queen Katherine Parr since long before she married the king. Shardlake's inquiries may have dramatic consequences for the whole kingdom.
Hugh de Singleton, on the other hand, is a beginner surgeon in a small town. He gets dragged into this first adventure -- there will be at least seven more -- because while he may not be competent to investigate, there is surely no one better in the neighborhood for analyzing a bunch of bones.
Matthew Shardlake operates in the tense times of Henry VIII. The Reformation, enflaming wars all across the continent. Intrigues among Henry's potential successors, Edward, Mary, Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey. Plots involving all those who would be regent until 10-year-old Edward is old enough to succeed. The king completely dominates the landscape, intimately affecting the lives of everyone, high-born or low. Hugh de Singleton's king, in the early 1360s, is Edward III, whose fifty-year reign was the longest the kingdom had known... but I am not sure that his name ever appears in the book. The most imposing figure we meet is the High Sheriff of Oxford...
Our young surgeon -- just returned from the medical faculty in Paris -- is sure of his skill in medicine, but he knows that he is a bumbling beginner as an investigator, learning on the fly. He is aware that he may make mistakes... and that if he does they may be fatal. Not to the kingdom, which is pretty much unaware of the existence of Bampton, much less the town's surgeon... but for the people involved. Villeins or merchants, ladies or wenches, Mel Starr's characters are people .
Hugh realizes that while it will be Lord Gilbert who will mete out justice, it will be on the basis of Hugh's findings. When the evidence points to a particular suspect, Hugh is unsure, but Lord Gilbert commands him to have the man arrested and charged. Who is morally responsible, Hugh or Lord Gilbert?
A pleasant read. Recommended.
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