Marilyn Thiele
The summer of 1645 in York is blazing hot; the sun beats down relentlessly day after day, plants are shriveling and dying, people are fainting, the stench is the worst it’s ever been. The Puritans who were besieging the city a year before in the historical background to Sam Thomas’s debut novel The Midwife’s Tale, have now taken over and their regime is the setting for his follow up, The Harlot’s Tale (Minotaur Books, January 2014). As the Puritans take over the city management, they are quickly followed by the religious zealots who preach on the street corners and in the churches, asserting that the extreme heat is God’s wrath brought down on the city for its sins, most especially the sin of prostitution. (Having read this book in the depths of extreme weather of the opposite season, I was pleased that, despite no lack of modern day zealotry, no one was blaming God’s wrath, only the “polar vortex,” almost as mysterious.)
Bridget Hodgson, the midwife introduced in Mr. Thomas’s outstanding first book (“A Gem of History and Mystery” ), doesn’t seem to be much affected by the shift in the power structure. Babies are being born, she attends to their mothers, and her powerful brother-in-law, Edward, has even more influence. She is not happy about the stripping of ornamentation from the churches or the fanatical preaching, but she is astute enough to avoid controversy and go about her work. That is, until Edward asks for her help in solving a murder. A prostitute and her customer have been found savagely assaulted. Bridget’s work takes her among the harlots, who also need her skills, and Edward thinks she may be able to find information that will solve the crime. He quickly changes his mind, but Bridget won’t be put off. More murders follow, each as brutal as the first. And in each case, Bible verses denouncing harlotry are found in the hands of the victims. Someone has decided that preaching alone won’t rid the city of sin.
Mystery series are appealing because they allow us to continue to follow the lives of not just the main character, but the supporting cast. Mr. Thomas gave us a set of well-drawn secondary individuals in The Midwife’s Tale, and they are fleshed out even more in this novel. Martha, Bridget’s assistant, is learning both midwifery and interpersonal skills from her mentor. Her street smarts (and fighting skills), vestiges of her earlier life, come in handy again. Will, Bridget’s nephew and son of Edward, had risen in his father’s estimation while his older brother was away fighting, and was being groomed as Edward’s successor. Now Joseph has returned, and Will is back in second place. He handles his disappointment through drinking and dissolute living, at least until Bridget gives him some straight talk, telling him he is only lowering his father’s opinion of him. Edward himself is as obdurate as he was in the first novel, but, as there, shows a certain respect for Bridget’s capabilities and grudgingly listens to her observations about the crimes.
New characters introduced here are as multi-faceted as the continuing ones. Helen Wright, a “bawd” (“madam” in modern parlance), is surprised when “Lady Hodgson” visits her as part of the investigation, but, although respectful, holds her head up and doesn’t hesitate to give Bridget another view on her profession. How else would these forsaken women earn a living? Are the preachers going to feed them? Find them other work? Helen is not about to apologize for who she is. Hezekiah Ward, the most ardent preacher of the new lot, and his family and followers seem at first to be one-dimensional types, harping on sin and thinking of nothing else. As Bridget probes the group, searching for one who may have taken the mandate to eradicate evil too far, we see other sides of this all too human clan. (Although Hezekiah’s son, named Praise-God, does have to work to overcome some stereotyping.)
As in Mr. Thomas’s first novel, there is a wealth of historical detail. The reader is taken to the high and low neighborhoods of York as Bridget pursues her investigation. We see the daily lives of the harlots, their friendships and support for each other, their love for the children they must hide from the authorities. We see the problems of the powerful, as they try to appease the religious extremists who have gained control while avoiding foolhardy measures, such as shutting the taverns, that would enrage the populace.
I am looking forward to the next entry in this series. Events in The Harlot’s Tale have led to some changes in Bridget’s household, and the new arrangements promise an intensification in the exploits of the investigative team of Bridget, Martha and Will.
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