The Harper’s Quine

It took me almost a third of this historical mystery to really settle into the story. To begin with, the writing is so richly descriptive that I almost couldn\’t follow the narrative. The Harper\’s Quine by Pat Mcintosh features meticulous research and intelligent writing but the mystery unfolds very slowly and passively so that I didn\’t find it as exciting as I\’d hoped. It\’s a whodunit solved by a great deal of time-consuming and methodical detection. Although by the end, I was well acquainted with the main characters, I found it initially very hard to distinguish between the various side characters. My confusion continued to the closing chapters unfortunately. The author has an excellent knowledge of the workings of the medieval church, law, everyday life, Scottish environs and the era. As many other reviewers have mentioned, it would have been ideal to append a glossary for the archaic Scots and Ersche vocabulary not found in the modern dictionary. It was a real shame to miss out on the meanings of these words and phrases which couldn\’t always be gathered from their context. Even though the standard of writing is high, I am not all that motivated to follow Gil and Alys Cunningham through the next 8 books in this series based on the pace and progress of the storyline.

I am so happy that I stumbled across this author and her series of medieval mystery novels. I\’m always looking for new authors and especially authors who write period mysteries. This series, if I can go by how good this first book was, will definitely become a must-read for me. The setting is Glasgow, Scotland, 1492, and the main character is a twenty-six year old man who has a degree in law, but is moving toward becoming a priest. Gilbert Cunningham finds the body of a woman on the grounds of St. Mungo\’s Cathedral and is allowed to take on the investigation of who killed her. The process of doing so brings about changes in his future. Thankfully this author had spent quality time in planning this story and obviously gave a lot of thought to the characters and locations because they came vividly alive for me as I was reading. Since the information in the book states that Ms McIntosh lives and went to school in the environs covered by this book there is a realism to all the situations and places which guarantees authenticity. I also was very glad to find that this novel was written in the style which allowed the search for clues to be fully discussed among at least four of the main characters. This allowed me to know exactly where they were in the process of the investigation. I discovered the evidence at the same time the investigators did so I felt completely involved in the story. There are many words used in this novel which are not used in modern English language, or perhaps I should say they are not commonly found in my part of the United States. I had to resort to an on-line dictionary for some definitions which I couldn\’t work out just by their usage within the sentence. Sometimes I felt the meaning wasn\’t important enough to bother looking it up. One example of a word I did look up is the word quine in the title, but I\’ll let you investigate that on your own if you need to. I needed to! There seems to be some discrepancy in whether there are nine or ten novels in this series. I definitely found nine titles. I\’m glad I started with the first in the series, but from here on out I may have to read whichever novel I can find. They are not necessarily easy to find. #1 Harper\’s Quine: A Gil Cunningham Murder Mystery #2 Nicholas Feast: A Gil Cunningham Murder Mystery #3 Merchant\’s Mark #4 St Mungo\’s Robin (Gil Cunningham Murder Mystery 4) #5 Rough Collier #6 Stolen Voice: A Gil Cunningham Murder Mystery #7 Pig of Cold Poison: A Gil Cunningham Murder Mystery (Gil Cunningham Murder Mysteries) #8 Counterfeit Madam: A Gil Cunningham Mystery set in Medieval Scotland (Gil Cunningham Murder Mysteries) #9 The Fourth Crow This series comes very highly recommended by me. I enjoyed the way the plot was constructed, the characters are very realistic and engaging, and the atmosphere of medieval Glasgow was a joy to read – mainly because the focus was not on how hot it was or how cold it was or how wet it was or how much refuse was littering the streets. Medieval novels can really get bogged down – both literally and figuratively – in mud, sickness, and garbage. This one passed on all those subjects for the most part and concentrated on the characters and the mystery.

I simply loved this book. It wasn\’t perfect, but it was so charming and well written I can easily overlook the minor flaws. Gil Cunningham is a lawyer in medieval Glasgow. He\’s facing doubts about committing to the priesthood, which are only exacerbated upon meeting a lovely and sensible young woman. When another woman, a noblewoman who had recently abandoned her husband for a traveling harper, is murdered on church grounds, he is tasked with finding the murderer. The mystery is well paced, and there are plenty of twists to keep you guessing. I was confused a few times over how everyone was connected to one another – since nearly everyone was married by blood or marriage and half the characters had the same last name. It\’s a pity that kindle books don\’t generally have family charts, as I think it would have helped me keep them all straight. Nevertheless, I really did enjoy reading this, and I can\’t wait to spend more time with Gil, Alys, and Maister Mason.

\”At the May Day dancing at Glasgow Cross, Gilbert Cunningham saw not only the woman who was going to be murdered, but her murderer as well.\” So opens a fascinating medieval mystery by Pat McIntosh, The Harper\’s Quine. The period detail is extremely convincing in depicting this time of change and upheaval while the characterizations are so well drawn that you regret the end of the book–clever and stunning as it is. I liked the Harper\’s Quine so much I have given it as a gift several times. The recipients have all been thrilled with the book and clamored for more.

This is an accomplished mystery with a strong sense of history and character. The writing is quite polished, especially for a first novel. The setting is Glasgow in 1492. The intriguing adventures of the young lawyer, soon to be priest, allow the reader to view a wide section of Scotland – servants, nobles, impoverished gentry. The story touches on points of Scottish law and the intricacies of marital finances, the travels of young scholars, the mingling and separation of lowlander and highlander. There was a cast of interesting and likeable characters that I look forward to meeting again. The only disappointment is waiting for the second book.

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