Historical mysteries are a fun way to travel to the past while unraveling a puzzling mystery, and the Middle Ages are a favorite time period to visit. In Medieval mysteries, you can visit a castle, watch knights do battle, or roam the cloisters of a mysterious monastery.
I love historical mysteries of all kinds, and I particularly like it when stories draw attention to lesser-known aspects of different time periods. There is a tendency of some people when approaching the Middle Ages to think of the entire 1000 year period as just the Dark Ages and a time of ignorance and stagnation, but in reality, it was anything but! It was a dynamic era when society was in flux. There were political rivalries and power struggles, social pressures, and plagues. In those mysterious monasteries, the most learned people of their time quietly gathered the knowledge of their time and produced hand-written copies with brilliant illustrations. Craftsmen perfected their arts, and gradually, new inventions and technological developments, such as the printing press and the use of gunpowder in warfare, brought society into a new era ... but one that depended on all of the events and developments that came before. Credit given where credit is due.
Life in the Middle Ages wasn't easy. There were dangers, disease, and warfare, as well as the types of crimes that plague every era of human history. The heroes of historical fiction are people who a part of their historical era but who keep their wits about them and battle evil to make their world a better and safer place.
I'd like to call attention to a few books and series in this sub-subgenre of historical fiction:
This is a series that most fans of Medieval mysteries would know! Brother Cadfael is a former soldier from Wales who turned monk after returning home from the Crusades. In his youth, he was a hot-head, but having seen the violence of war, he has become more contemplative and has devoted his life to the study of herbal medicine. His investigation of murders comes from his role as a community healer. He is accustomed to seeing and examining dead bodies after his time as a soldier, and he maintains a friendship with the local sheriff.
The Brother Cadfael mysteries are set in the abbey in Shrewsbury, England, near the border of Wales, and they take place during the 12th century civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Maude, known as The Anarchy. Some of the mysteries in the series directly relate to the war and include political or military intrigue. There are spies and back-stabbing nobles who find their way to the monastery or the nearby town, and although Brother Cadfael has no desire to take arms in the conflict, he wants to see justice for the victims of crime.
This book series was also made into a television series. I've actually seen more episodes of the series than read books in the series, but it is an excellent series. I would recommend skipping the last season in the show, though, because it isn't as historically accurate or faithful to the original books as the earlier seasons.
In some ways, this one is almost a reversal of the premise of Brother Cadfael. Roger is actually a former monk who has become a traveling peddler. It also takes place in England, but much later than the Brother Cadfael series, during the 15th century, and it is set against the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, a power struggle between the York and Lancaster families.
This is also a Medieval mystery series set in England, but it is set much earlier than the previous two. This series is set during the 11th century, after the Norman Conquest of England. William the Conqueror commissioned a full survey and accounting of the holdings of land owners in his new kingdom so that he would know how to assess taxes. The record of this accounting came to be known as the Domesday Book because those who were the subjects of the scrutiny felt like they were being judged as thoroughly and finally as if it were the Last Judgement, or as we would spell it, Doomsday.
The main characters of the mystery series are Ralph Delchard, who is a soldier, and Gervase Bret, who is a lawyer. They are among those who have been given the job of researching land holdings for the Domesday Book. Throughout the series, the two of them travel across England and find themselves investigating not only property ownership but crimes that they encounter along the way.
