The Cup of Ghosts

By Paul Doherty

Book Overview

By 1322, Mathilde of Westminster was considered the finest physician in London. But in her years as lady-in-waiting to Princess Isabella, she was drawn into the murky politics of the English court,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0755328752
• ISBN13: 9780755328758
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Headline Paperbacks
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 1.1" x 4.7"

Customer Reviews

A real mystery, historically speaking

This and its companion, "The Poison Maiden," are well-written and thoroughly intriguing mysteries, but they are also truly historical: that is, the characters in both stories think, react, and behave like 14th-century people instead of moderns who walk about and do their sleuthing in 14th-century dress. Likewise, that the motives and suspects are not at all what we might expect sets a much greater challenge for the armchair detective who is determined to beat Mathilde of Westminster to the solution of her lethal puzzles. Mr Doherty knows his history, but also deftly transports us to this wholly different time and place and way of thinking, and gives us a taste of how strange it and its inhabitants must be to us, seven centuries away. And I discovered one delightful surprise: among the novel's "bit players" are individuals whom its author calls Crutched Friars. They are largely unknown to and usually ignored by historians, secular and ecclesiastical, but they are my ancestors, and Mr Doherty has correctly characterized them as they were.

Death at every corner

This is the first volume in what promises to be an entertaining historical mystery series, with Mathilde of Westminster as its heroine. Mathilde was raised by her uncle, a Templar Knight, as a physician and herbalist and, while training her in the medical arts, was also training her mind to be unusually observant and analytical. In France, King Philip was determined to crush the power of the Templars in order to seize their enormous wealth so as to forward his plans to become ruler of England as well as France. Knowing that his end was probably at hand, Mathilde's uncle sends her to the protection of a powerful friend, but, even there she is in danger as the friend and his entire household is murdered. Another of her uncle's friends sends her to the relative safety of the household of the King's daughter, Princess Isabella, who is shortly to be married to Edward 2 of England. Isabella's court moves to England where she is crowned Queen and she and Mathilde begin a perilous journey, walking a narrow and dangerous line between appeasing the changeable moods and tempers of Edward and protecting themselves against the machinations of Philip of France. It's a fascinating look at life in the 14th century where, even at a royal court,brutal deaths happen frequently and no one, not even the royals themselves, is safe.

Move over Cadfael, Mathilde is making an entrance

Mathilde of Westminster was a woman born out of time; she was a physician and an alchemist who learnt her art from her Templar Uncle who was savagely murdered on the orders of the French King who coveted the wealth of the Templar's. Hidden from the wrath of the King by a close friend of her Uncle right under his very nose as the lady-in-waiting to Princess Isabella, who was to marry the sexually ambiguous Edward II, she was reluctantly drawn into the dangerous political life of the English court, where death was only a heartbeat away. The book actually starts at the end of Mathilde's like when she is living in solitude as a nun, the glory and decadence of the life she saw and even partook in is long gone and all that remains are memories and secrets that could still bring England to her knees. Mathilde looks back over her many years as the "She Wolf's" (as Queen Isabella was known as) constant and loyal companion and in written code chronicles her turbulent life and times and the things she did in the name of love, politics, and revenge. Mathilde's keen eye along with her brilliance for understanding symptoms and causes and not just those of a medical nature gives her the skills and ability to survive in a precarious world where life sits on the knife edge of King's cruel whim. Mathilde's superior intellect helps her distinguish between an accident and murder and when she is confronted by a catalogue of seemingly unconnected murders, along with attempts on her own life she realises she must unravel a puzzle that goes right into the heart of French and English royalty. Cup of Ghosts is a beautifully written novel, bringing fact and fiction together in a believable story of murder, intrigue, desire for power and passion in a time when violence and murder was a way of life.

An Engaging New Mystery Heroine

I'm not generally a fan of mysteries, except for those of P. D. James, but if it's about Edward II, I'll buy it, so naturally I eagerly awaited The Cup of Ghosts. It's the first of a promised series featuring Mathilde, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Isabella. Mathilde, who has been training as a physician in Paris under the supervision of her beloved uncle, finds her world shattered when King Philip begins persecuting the Knights Templar, an order to which her uncle belongs. To save Mathilde's life, her doomed uncle sends her to the house of a friend, who in turn sends Mathilde to the household of young Princess Isabella. Sexually abused by her loutish brothers and full of hatred toward her father, Isabella regards Mathilde with suspicion at first, but soon becomes her devoted friend. In the meantime, several people have died horribly, in and out of court, and more deaths follow when Isabella marries Edward II and travels to England. Shrewd and with a physician's eye for unnatural death, Mathilde is a natural to investigate what she realizes must be murders--and a natural target for murder herself. I admit that as the body count grew higher and higher in this novel, my interest began to flag somewhat--I would have liked fewer corpses and more time to get to know the living. Still, there's a lot to like here. Edward II and Isabella are attractively portrayed (though I doubt whether Isabella's brothers merited their portrayal here as child molesters, and incestuous ones at that). I particularly liked Mathilde. Resourceful, courageous, tough, and at the same time kindly and warmhearted, Mathilde is a heroine I look forward to seeing again.

Paul Doherty's New Series a Hit!

Mathilde of Westminster, a 1322 outstanding physician, is an admirable character used by the author as murder and intrigue in the royal courts of England and France hold one spellbound. Everything one could wish for in a medieval mystery.