Dragon's Lair

Sharon Kay Penman writes historical novels and medieval mysteries and I learned about her from my friend Darcy MacPherson. She does her research and offers an author's note to indicate where her fiction has deviated from the historical facts as currently known. Her medieval mysteries center around Justin deQuincy, the illegitimate son of the Bishop of  Chester, Awbrey deQuincy, who has only grudgingly admitted paternity to Justin and denies it to the rest of the world. Justin has become--through luck he admits--the Queen's Man, the Queen in this case being Eleanor. In this third installment of the series, the Queen  is trying to gather an exorbitant ransom to gain the release of her favored son, Richard, from prison in Germany. Her other son, John, aspires to the throne and so seeks to prevent Richard's return. The ransom demanded of Wales has, according to a letter received by the Queen, gone missing in a murder/robbery and she is sending Justin to find and recover it. Ransom is not being paid in money but in silver and other valuables as well as bags of Cistercian wool. Justin finds that the robbery is not the work of a rebel seeking to overthrow the Welsh throne as the current Kind of Wales, Davydd, asserts, but it will take both cleverness and luck to find out who is really behind it and to find the missing ransom. Characters are well-developed, political intrigues are abundant, and the setting will draw you in carry you along. I am wishing now I had read the first book, The Queen's Man, more recently.