Nine Men Dancing

As the winter of 1478 draws to a close, peddlar Roger the Chapman finds himself on the road heading towards his home of Bristol after a successful peddling trip to the Cotswalds. Roger takes a "short cut" and finds himself lost in the woods, finally to stumbl;e upon the remote, small village of Lower Brockbury. Seeking a night's shelter in the local inn, Roger quickly discovers that the town is full of secrets, most notably the unexplained disappearance six months previously of 16-year old Eris Lilywhite. Young Eris disappears on a "dark and stormy night" after scandalously jilting her betrothed, Tom Rawbone, for his wealthy father Ned Rawbone. Faithful readers of the Roger the Chapman series will know that Roger cannot resist investigating a mystery like this, and in doing so he finds that the town is hiding many secrets. The plot in this mystery is very well done. Unlike most of the other stories in this series, in "Nine Men Dancing" Roger is not involved with the Duke of Gloucester. As such, author Sedley spends more time painting a picture of an isolated village in the late 1400s. I found the details of everyday life to make a very interesting story.

Roger the Chapman has promised his wife Adela that he'll be home in time for the Feast of St. Patrick. All's well, he thinks, when he pauses to spend the night in an upcountry village. It's a dark and stormy night in the year 1458. Always one eager to get involved in (and solve) local mysteries, Roger is drawn once again into another of Kate Sedley's medieval mysteries, "Nine Men Dancing." A young woman, Eris Lilywhite, has disappeared. It's not that simple, though. Young Eris is something of a designing young woman whose sensuous abilities seem to outweigh her intellectual capacity. She leads one young man, Tom Rawbone, to think he's her "intended," but suddenly reveals she'll marry, instead, Tom's father Ned. Needless to say, this causes quite a disruption. Eris bolts the house in the middle of a fierce nighttime storm, never to be seen again. Of course, the village is divided into two camps: those who don't care what happened to her and to those who do, mainly her mother and grandmother, who enlists Roger's help in solving the mystery. Roger agrees, reluctantly (after all, he's promised to be in Bistol by March 17!) and from this point, Sedley's mystery plows on. Village secrets abound, ages-old hostilities shine, and Roger even concludes that there is a connection between the disappearance of Eris and the deaths of two well-diggers over 150 years ago. Aside from creating a character (Roger) who is fun AND interesting to know, Sedley's historical commentary seems sound as she effortlessly captures the tone and atmosphere of what 15th century must have been like. She also spins a good tale, cleverly matching the storyline with the symbols of nine men's morris, a popular game of the time. This episode in the series, to me, is the most exciting and the fastest-paced one. It's a good read, as is the entire series.

I love Roger. And as a teacher I've told writing students often that they need to foreshadow. Kate Sedley sometimes over foreshadows. She gives clues out at the beginning of this book that I wished I didn't have. Although I love Roger and his world, and the charactes he encounters here, and there are many surprises, I kept wishing Roger would get on with it and figure out this one clue. But then Roger is always interesting. This just isn't one of the very best in the series but is well worth reading. (For those who don't know the series, this is a series that is best read in order.)