Ela of Salisbury Mysteries

Ela of Salisbury Medieval Mysteries, by J. G. Lewis, is a series of historical murder mysteries, in which the very real Ela of Salisbury, widow of William Longespée, who becomes sheriff after her husband’s death, and has to solve mysteries and dispense (extremely medieval) justice.  

I just loved how our characters have reasonable historically accurate attitudes here. Ela goes out in the morning to walk around her home, and ensure that the child laborers who work for her estate are well-fed and not slacking off. Ela, like everyone else in her social class, knows that she’s been called by God himself to a higher level than the serfs who toil in her family’s fields, and so she deserves the luxuries and benefits of her class, even as she arranges her children’s marriages to keep that wealth and power in her family.  These all seemed like something a well-educated woman with her background would think and do.  The motivations for the crimes and the suspects’ alibis are also grounded in the time period, with the right-of-way through a field or the social responsibilities of the local church, for example, coming up in the investigation. This makes for twisty crime-solving with interesting historical details.

I also love the historian sidebars. 

Ela laughed. “You don’t really believe these great stones were moved by a wizard’s magic, do you?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Bill looked perplexed. “It’s recorded history, written by a respected historian.”

A Surfeit of Miracles: An Ela of Salisbury Medieval Mystery, J. G. Lewis

Subtweeting Geoffrey of Monmouth, I love it. 

There’s one odd style choice with the chapter breaks. Often, the narrative breaks at dramatic points, which is pretty common, but then the new chapter starts with the next sentence, still in the same place, at the same time, with the same narrator. It was strange, because it broke up dramatic scenes, and didn’t have much point besides highlighting that the scene was dramatic. 

I had these books on my reading list for ages, but they aren’t in my library or accessible through ILL.  I finally got the first one with an Amazon credit or coupon or something, and then just kept clicking to buy the next in the series when I finished. Each book is it’s own mystery, but because the new books pick up pretty closely after the last on ended, the whole thing kinda becomes one narrative. It feels more like a history of Salisbury or a biography of Ela’s later life, in a good way. Many of the central characters return in each novel, so Ela’s loyal guard or her trustworthy coroner really do show themselves as dedicated, skillfull servants.  

There are a few overall questions that help link the books, too. From the beginning, Ela is building a convent, and making plans to retire to a life of prayer, but she has no intention of giving up her post as sheriff right away. In addition to solving local murders and bringing criminals to justice, she has to marry off all her children, and maybe solve the overall mystery of her husband’s mysterious death after a dinner at a rival lord’s house.