- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (27 April 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575058919
- ISBN-13: 978-0575058910
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 11.2 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 993,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Falconer's Crusade
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Product Description
Product Description
Set in Oxford University in 1264, this murder-mystery follows Regent Master William Falconer, a progressive teacher and amateur detective, as he tries to solve the murder of a local servant girl. His students are under suspicion and Falconer is drawn into a world of heresy, magic and violence.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is superb a debut for the thirteenth century Oxford based detective William Falconer. Morson's achievement is to create a good story, populate it with fascinating,sympathetic characters and to place them in as convincing a portrayal of a Mediaeval city as I've ever read. Falconer himself is a marvellous character..possibly the most interesting of the recent explosion of historical detectives. A friend and keen follower of the ideas of Roger Bacon,Falconer is absorbed with the possibility of mankind building a device to fly through the air but is thwarted in his own attempts to create such a device. He earns his meagre living as a Regent Master within the University of Oxford and the book revolves largely around the internal politics of the university and its less than happy relations with the townsfolk during those turbulent years. When a young French servant-girl is murdered in a gloomy alleyway,Falconer takes it upon himself to investigate the crime.The girl worked for one of the less salubrious Regent Masters attached to the University and he becomes an immediate suspect,but the plot thickens considerably.... Set against a backdrop involving the struggle between Simon de Montfort and King Henry III,the novel nevertheless maintains a credible balance of mystery,skullduggery and the more mundane everyday life of the University.There is humour (especially in the character of Falconer's newest student and would-be helper) and the end result is an extremely accomplished first in the series. If you enjoy well crafted historical mysteries look no further than this title !
Format:Paperback
this is the first in a new ( for me) author's historical novels. It was very enjoyable and I will be purchasing further books in the series
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Falconer's Crusade is a muddy, bloody stroll through medieval Oxford. It is the first in a series that improved as it went along. This introductory adventure has serious plot flaws.
One problem is that the suspects are not internal to the plot, by which I mean, we as readers know that they are the suspects, and that one of them is the murderer, because they are the characters we are told about. There is no reason for Falconer to consider them suspects. He puzzles over which one of them is guilty, but there is no reason why any of them should be, or any reason why anyone else shouldn't be. The guilty party is easy to spot in the end, and if you haven't got it by the end of chapter 13, review what you've read up to then and you shouldn't have much difficulty. The clues are obvious.
Another problem is the coincidental beginning, the main characters happening to be in the same place at the same time. Readers of mysteries don't seem to mind this, of course. If Miss Marple's quiet village or Poirot's vacations become a bloodbath so that they have a good supply of mysteries to solve, we take it in our stride. So perhaps we should not be surprised that Falconer and Thomas are just where they should be, when they should be.
Morson mixes in plenty of historic authenticity, which readers of the medieval mystery genre insist upon. I am not convinced he always gets it right. For example, the nef (elaborate condiment holder) laid before Prince Edward belongs to a later period, I thought. Also, would a Jewish girl of the period really have 'an ivory skin'?
Morson writes well, with an occasional artistic flourish. He is fond of describing 'dust motes dancing in the sunbeams', for example. So the book is a pleasure to read. It just doesn't pass muster as a mystery.
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