{"id":1926,"date":"2016-04-22T14:44:22","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T21:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=1926"},"modified":"2016-04-22T14:44:22","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T21:44:22","slug":"candace-robb-the-service-of-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/candace-robb-the-service-of-the-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Candace Robb: The Service of the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"51LcUKQOdDL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_\"Candace Robb returns with a new series set in 1399 York, featuring a true badass, Kate Clifford. Kate has a rich backstory, fleshed out throughout the book while she veers from crisis to crisis. She\u2019s a widow who moved to York from Scotland for safety\u2019s sake, but as York at that time was a hotbed of political intrigue, nowhere is really safe. She\u2019s lost her twin brother who \u201ctalks\u201d to her (kind of like Hamish in Charles Todd\u2019s Ian Rutledge books) and she\u2019s looking after two wards, her dead husband\u2019s bastards, now bereft of their mother. It\u2019s an uneasy alliance.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s most at home with her dogs, Lille and Ghent, and when she has a chance, she starts her morning practicing her archery. Her clothes are made with handy pockets for knives and small axes; and she\u2019s always on the alert. As this book proves, with good reason.<\/p>\n

The story opens with the discovery of a body in the bawdy house she discretely rents out to some of York\u2019s most illustrious citizens; not only is this horrifying, she\u2019s expecting a lengthy visit from one Lady Margery the very next day. She manages to get the body cleared away and the house ready, but meanwhile her ward Philip vanishes.<\/p>\n

There are several deaths which are surely connected though the connections aren\u2019t clear until the end of the story; what Robb really excels at are action scenes, and there are several sprinkled throughout the narrative. They really make this a rocket powered read. With her sturdy servant Jennet at her side and the scarred baker Berend in her kitchen, she\u2019s always protected, even though York is rough and tumble.<\/p>\n

The story of Kate\u2019s brother\u2019s death, threaded through the story, are especially horrific; and Robb ends the novel with the return of one of Kate\u2019s relatives, setting up for a next installment. Candace Robb was part of the wave of historical writers in the early 90s that included Sharan Newman and Margaret Frazer; clear descendants of Ellis Peters, all of them bringing a scholarly take to their writing while also supplying excellent stories and characters. It\u2019s wonderful to have a new novel and character to cherish from this talented writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Candace Robb returns with a new series set in 1399 York, featuring a true badass, Kate Clifford. Kate has a rich backstory, fleshed out throughout the book while she veers from crisis to crisis. She\u2019s a widow who moved to York from Scotland for safety\u2019s sake, but as York at that time was a hotbed … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-1926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-historical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1928,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions\/1928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}