Canterbury Papers

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The only thing I felt was a strong hand around my neck, another around my waist, and -- before I could cry out -- I smelled the thick, sweet scent of a mandrake-soaked cloth. Unforgiving hands clapped it against my face, and all went dark.AlaÏs, the king of France's sister, is abducted while on her mission for the wily Eleanor of Aquitaine, the former Queen of England, to retrieve hidden letters that, in the wrong hands, could bring down the English king. In exchange, the French princess was to receive long-heldand dangerous information. Now AlaÏs, along with help from the very intriguing leader of the Knights Templar, must unravel a tangled web of family secrets and lies.Filled with intrigue and peopled with compelling legendary figures, The Canterbury Papers is an "electrifying journey into the past" (Booklist).From Publishers WeeklyThis engaging medieval suspense debut is alternately playful and sober in its exploration of the power maneuvers and backstabbing of the royal families of England and France. The story, set in the early 1200s, is narrated by Princess Alais Capet, a bored and somewhat bitter member of the French nobility, long passed over for both matrimony and higher status. Ala‹s is approached by Queen Eleanor, who asks her to retrieve a secret and highly personal cache of letters hidden in England's Canterbury Cathedral. Eleanor won't explain the importance of the letters, but in return for salvaging them, she promises to divulge family secrets that Ala‹s could use to her advantage. Alais, frustrated by the slow and tiresome life at the French court, agrees to run the errand, but when she reaches Canterbury, she finds not only the letters missing but a trail of dead bodies in her wake. Just as she is about to depart for home, she's abducted and taken prisoner by King John, an inept and insecure leader who views Alais as an important pawn in his attempts to strengthen his tenuous grip on the throne. Healey's well-researched historical drama many of the characters and circumstances are based on real-life models delights in poking fun at the stuffiness and misbehavior that characterized the royal families of the time. The pace may be a little too leisurely for some readers, but Alais's tart, wry perspective makes this age-old story fresh and absorbing. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistDebut novelist Healey brings medieval history to life in magnificent fashion as she adds a new twist to an old legend. An elderly Eleanor of Aquitaine requests that her former ward, Alais Capet, the sister of the king of France, travel to Canterbury and retrieve a cache of letters Eleanor had hidden in the cathedral there years earlier. Alais is reluctant, but Eleanor dangles an irresistible carrot in front of her: a promise of information about the whereabouts of Alais' illegitimate child. The French princess undertakes the dangerous task, only to be kidnapped by a desperate King John. Alais must unravel an intricately tangled web of family intrigue and deception that could lead either to a reunion with her lost son or to her own destruction. Plagued by infidelity and mistrust, petty jealousy and political rivalry, the infamously dysfunctional Plantagenets plot and scheme against one another in this electrifying journey into the past. Margaret FlanaganCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved