"For murder, though it has no tongue, will speakWith most miraculous organ."- William Shakespeare (Hamlet, 1600-02)
During the first couple of years on this
blog, I read a whole slew of historical
mystery novels from a very prolific scribbler, Paul
Doherty, but the flood was stemmed to a trickle by the rapidly expanding
gamut of procurable Golden Age and neo-classical mysteries.
I've read only two of Doherty's
historical fancies in just as many years: The
Nightingale Gallery (1991) and Song
of a Dark Angel (1994). So I thought a return to his work was in order
and picked the inaugural novel in what seems like a very promising series. A
series that'll see me back before 2017 rolls around!
The
White Rose Murders (1991) was the first in a
series of six, originally published under the nom-de-plume of "Michael
Clynes," which all have the long and descriptive subtitle of "Journal of
Sir Roger Shallot" that concerns "certain wicked conspiracies and
horrible murders perpetrated in the reign of King Henry VIII" – a premise
pregnant with promise and vast possibilities.
However, in his old days, Shallot has
become a haunted man as the "clip-clop of spectral hooves on the
peddle-strewn path in front of the manor" herald the ghosts of his pasts as
they form an "army of silent witnesses" around his bed – taunting him
with jeering cries of being a liar, thief and a coward. Shallot tells the story
behind these ghostly faces as he dictates his memoirs to a chaplain in the
center of a maze, which protects him from "the importunate pleadings" of
his "brood of children" and the "soft footfall of the assassin"
from one of the many secret societies who'd like to see him depart from the
world. You'll understand why once you learn his story. Shallot has a penchant
for landing in trouble and making the occasional enemy on the side.
First of all, The White Rose Murders
is an original story that tells of Sir Roger Shallot's humble beginnings: a
child born during a time of terror "when the great Sweating Sickness swept
into London" and Henry VII reigned over the country, but a life of mischief
in bad company nearly condemned him to death by hanging and was saved by an
offer to enlist in the King's Army to march against the Scots – where he "hid
beneath a wagon until the slaughter had finished" and "came out with the
rest of the English Army to claim a great victory." Well, being a "war
hero" did not prevent Shallot from a second meeting with the hangman, but this
time he was spared by interference of an old and influential school friend,
Benjamin Daunbey.
Daunbey is the favorite nephew of
Cardinal Wolsey, the ruling scepter in the hand of King Henry VIII, who took
Shallot as his manservant and through this connection they become encumbered in
a Royal assignment.
A potential deadly chore that began when
James IV of Scotland is killed on the battlefield of Flodden and his widow,
Queen Margaret, fled to England and had to leave her infant son behind under a
Council of Regency. Queen Margaret is the sister of Henry VIII and seeing her
restored to the Scottish throne is in the best interest of England, which
brings Shallot and Daunbey in the picture: Cardinal Wolsey has imprisoned
Alexander Selkirk, "formerly physician to the late King James," to draw
information from him that could assist Queen Margaret's return to Scotland and
he's suspected of being a member of Les Blancs Sangiers – a secret coven
of Yorkist conspirators that plots the overthrow of the Tudor Monarchy. The
only obstacle to obtaining this information is the fact that Selkirk's mind has
wandered away from him and spends his time writing "doggerel poetry" and
staring "blankly at the walls of his cell," which is not very helpful.
But he was still considered a danger by some.
Shallot and Daubney find themselves
confronted with an entire string of murders, containing a second impossible
poisoning in a sealed chamber, which they suspect sprang from the inner-circle
of Queen Margaret's household. A suspicion that's confirmed when they join the
Queen’s retinue to meet a Scottish envoy to negotiate her return to Scotland,
but murder is dogging their every step: from a lush priory and the vile back
alleys of London to the City of Paris, which "seethes like a hissing snake"
and "full of intrigue, subtle plots and traders who could cheat a beggar out
of his skin" – which makes you wonder how Shallot managed to life for
nearly a full century.
Doherty handles all of these plot-threads
with remarkable skill and strewn about ample clues to many of the proposed
mysteries, which were hidden in a scrap of poetry, a cat who refused to die and
the embalmed corpse of King James. The locked rooms were handled equally well and
the explanations for them were quite acceptable and reasonable. Not the best examples
the genre has to offer, but they were still pretty good and poisonings in locked
rooms are difficult to pull off convincingly.
I guess the only point I could bring
against the plot is that the murderer had nearly dissipated the small pool of
suspects by the end of the book, which made this person stand out, but even
that compensated by the fact that Daubney suspected the wrong person. You
should discover for yourself why that point is important.
However, the most attractive feature of The
White Rose Murders is Shallot's delightful narrative, which is often interrupted
to rebuke the chaplain for sneering at his cowardice or calling him a hypocrite
for condemning his loose morals. Shallot's narrative is also interspersed with
such prosperous claims as having met one of the Princes in the Tower (who was supposed
to be dead) and having been friends with William Shakespeare!
The Journals of Sir Roger Shallot:
The White Rose Murders (1991)
The Poisoned Chalice (1992)
The Grail Murders (1993)
A Brood of Vipers (1994)
The Gallows Murders (1995)
The Relic Murders (1996)