A widow who is a strong leading woman, Alice, is the main character of this historical mystery set in 14th-century London. After the deaths of her husband and child, Alice removed herself to a monastery, where she cares for orphan children. One of the nursery helpers, 14-year-old Constance, is abducted, and Alice sets out to find her, with a little help from one of the monks (with a very small hint of romance).

Medieval England is not one of my favorite settings, and this proves my case. Like the above rich-vs-poor conflict, this one includes nuns that are downright mean and men in charge who don’t think much of women. Yes, that setup might be authentic, but do I really need to see again how corrupt the church was in that time or how much the streets stank or how cold it was?

The writing was fine, although the dialog left something to be desired, and there were noticeably fewer errors in this ebook; what a nice change! I was somewhat disappointed by an intended twist of the story, which I thought pretty much gave away the solution. And the ending of the book was not very satisfactory. I just don’t care enough about the setting or characters to continue this series.

Some violence, no sexual content, and no foul language (just foul living conditions). ( )