The Cross-Legged Knight

Rating:
Summary: Good Owen Archer, not as good as previous novels
Review: I love the Owen Archer series. However, I was a bit disappointed in the latest book after having read and loved the last one in which he travels to Wales.
The Cross-Legged Knight was very dark and depressing. Owen is unhappy and unfulfilled, Thoresby is old and depressed, Lucie is sad and depressed. Jasper's character was utterly unused as were Bess & Tom Merchet & Brother Michaelo (OK he spied a little).
I usually finish one of Robb's Owen Archer novels on a thrilling high, smacking the book shut with utter satisfaction. This time it was not to be. I can't help wonder if the author was distracted away from Owen's tales by her new baby, the scottish medieval series.

What I disliked most about this one aside from the dark and depressed atmosphere was the dangling unresolved question of how did the murderer and victim know each other. I felt betrayed by the author, who's never left me the reader like that before.

Rating:
Summary: Robb rises to the occasion!
Review: It's the eight episode for Candace Robb's quintessential medieval spy Owen Archer and
neither the author nor the character seems to be slowing down.

Archer, the trusted one-eyed spy for the Archbishop of York, is once again thrust into the
maelstrom of deadly struggles between the Lancasters and the Church. What is a spy,
married to York's only female apothecary, to do?

Whatever direction he choose, he's bound to find a puzzle. For one, the Bishop of
Winchester has created a situation that could plunge the country into a civil war. Through
the bishop's apparent bungling, a trusted friend to King Edward III and knight of the
realm has been captured by the French and before a ransom could be negotiated, he dies in
prison. His widow, the Lady Pagnell, holds the bishop fully responsible and wishes to
extract her own pound of flesh (to borrow from Shakespeare some two hundred years
later).

While in York to try to smooth things over with the Pagnell family, the bishop finds his
own life in danger. Coupled with what appears to be attempts to assassinate him, murder
is discovered when a fire goes up in flames, leaving the victim inside. Thus, Owen Archer's
sleuthing skills are called in. Owen's wife Lucy, the co-protagonists of Robb's series, has
recently had a miscarriage and her recovery, both mentally and physically, is taking its toll
on the Archer household. The woman murdered had been responsible for helping Lucy in
her recovery and both Lucy and Owen feel driven to find her murderer.

And, of course, the hunt is afoot and with Robb's usual good skill, York is eventually given
the solution. But before the murderer is revealed, Robb has a story to tell and, once again,
she does it with exciting readability. Weaving quite effectively history with fiction, the
Robb stories appeal to both historians and whodunit readers. Her ability to capture the
landscape and atmosphere of 14th century England is noteworthy and her plot designs well
worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Medieval Mystery
Review: Owen Archer is called on by William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, to keep him safe. To appease the family of a man killed while being held prisoner in France, Wykeham returns the knight's heart. But a fire in Wykeham's house, a servant severly burned and a body of a dead woman, has Archer fearing for his own family's safety. While Lucie Wilton battles her own demons. Robb writes intricate plotted mysteries set in 14th century England by reading one you will become hooked.