Ariana Franklin Mistress of the Art of Death - 11 CDs unabridged audio book

Reader: Rosalyn Landor

Four savage murders….an elusive killer….and one extraordinary woman who can reveal the secrets of the dead.

In medieval Cambridge , England , four children have been murdered. The crimes are immediately blamed on the town's Jewish community, taken as evidence that Jews sacrifice Christian children in blasphemous ceremonies. To save them from the rioting mob, the king places the Cambridge Jews under his protection and hides them in a castle fortress. King Henry I is no friend of the Jews-or anyone, really-but he is invested in their fate. Without the taxes received from Jewish merchants, his treasuries would go bankrupt. Hoping scientific investigation will exonerate the Jews, Henry calls on his cousin the King of Sicily — whose subjects include the best medical experts in Europe — -and asks for his finest "master of the art of death," an early version of the medical examiner. The Italian doctor chosen for the task is a young prodigy from the University of Salerno . But her name is Adelia, - the king has been sent a mistress of the art of death.

In a backward and superstitious country like England , Adelia faces danger at every turn. As she examines the victims and retraces their last steps, she much conceals her true identity in order to avoid accusations of witchcraft. Along the way, she's assisted by one of the king's tax collectors, Sir Rowley Picot, a man with a personal stake in the investigation. A former Crusader knight, Rowley may be a needed friend – or the fiend of whom they are searching. As Adelia's investigation takes her along Cambridge 's shadowy river paths, and behind the closed doors of its churches and nunneries, the hunt intensifies and the killer prepares to strike again…..

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