Margaret Frazier The Sempster’s Tale

The Sempster's Tale

Margaret Frazier

Berkley, Jan 2005, $24.95, 352 pp.

ISBN 0425207668

In England of 1450 widowed Sempster (seamstress) Anne Blakhall loves David Weir, a foreign merchant who is a Jew pretending to be a Christian since all members of his religion were expelled from England during King Edward's time. He has many secrets that he keeps from her but circumstances force him to let Anne into a part of his clandestine life. He wants her to bring gold smuggled in to Dame Frevisse, who in turn will deliver it to her cousin Lady Alica, the recently widowed Duchess of Suffolk.

Frevisse is not happy that her cousin bribed her nunnery by promising them funeral vestments to get her to come to London. In the middle of a local rebellion against King Henry VI and his favorite nobles Frevisse becomes involved in two murder investigations. Hal, the step-son of Anne's friend Raulyn is murdered with what looks like Hebrew letters on his naked body. The second homicide occurs during the London riots while they all take shelter in Raulyn's home. David's heritage is discovered and a priest orders that he is to be tied up and taken away to the Bishop when London returns to normal. The priest is murdered and his body found outside the door and it becomes apparent to David and Frevisse that there is a killer in the house who must be stopped.

Readers get a glimpse into a bygone era where England is fed up with their monarch who taxes them unmercifully to fill his coffers and that of most loyal nobles. The way Christians thinks of Jews in a land where none are surprised to be is frightening because the prejudice is based on rumor and innuendo of people who have never met a Jewish person. The who-done it is told against this backdrop of prejudice and anger at the king which makes for a complex and compelling mystery. Fans of Sharon Kay Penman's medieval mystery series are going to love this book.

Harriet Klausner