{"id":2684,"date":"2018-10-29T07:16:19","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T14:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=2684"},"modified":"2018-10-29T07:16:19","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T14:16:19","slug":"candace-robb-a-murdered-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/candace-robb-a-murdered-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Candace Robb: A Murdered Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The third in Candace Robb\u2019s Kate Clifford series, set in 1400 York, finds much has changed in Kate\u2019s world.\u00a0 Kate, a widow who had been shackled by her late husband\u2019s debts, has at last paid them off.\u00a0 She\u2019s a happy mother to her wards \u2013 two of them her late husband\u2019s illegitimate children \u2013 but she loves all three of her children, one of them saved from the streets of York, equally.\u00a0 Her household is a bustling and happy one.<\/p>\n

As the book opens, a friend appears of her doorstep in a snowstorm, requesting shelter.\u00a0 Kate unthinkingly takes her in and only on reflection realizes the danger of taking in a woman who may be regarded at the worst as a traitor, at the least as a fugitive and corpse thief.\u00a0 The woman, Lady Kirkby, has witnessed the beheading of her husband during an uprising in nearby Cirencester.<\/p>\n

The world of 1400 York is in turmoil; the rightful King, Richard, has been imprisoned by what some consider a usurper, Henry, who has proclaimed himself Henry IV.\u00a0 The morass of alliances, enemies and power relationships are both the larger focus and the more intimate focus of this book.\u00a0 Kate is struggling with the moral and practical realties of hiding her friend; the larger society is struggling with the idea of an anointed King being imprisoned.<\/p>\n

Kate\u2019s problems are deepened by the disappearance of her beloved cook and steadfast friend and ally, Berend.\u00a0 He was beloved by her household and beloved by many in York, so when he starts popping up in various alleys and byways, he\u2019s concealed, despite the fact the Henry\u2019s men are looking for him.<\/p>\n

Kate has the good fortune slash awkward fortune of being befriended by one of Henry\u2019s men, the knight Elric.\u00a0 Each feels a powerful pull toward the other, frequently suppressed, and hampered by Kate\u2019s concealment of Lady Kirkby and her very real fears for Berend\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n

As Elric and Kate become allies and then uneasy allies as Elric discovers what she has concealed, Kate is not only desperately trying to find and save Berend, she\u2019s also trying to sort her life out.\u00a0 She\u2019s also, of course, trying to solve a few murders, which in typical medieval fashion have taken place through means of poison and throat slashing.<\/p>\n

Toward the very end of the novel, Kate exclaims \u201cI am sick of women being punished for their husbands\u2019 foolishness.\u201d\u00a0 While much of the novel concerns the politics of the time, it also concerns the place of women and what they needed to do to both achieve and sustain control of their lives.\u00a0\u00a0 Kate\u2019s not so unlikely ally is taverner Bess, an older, feisty, strong and wily neighbor, who helps to broker a solution to many of Kate\u2019s troubles.<\/p>\n

Kate, who conceals a throwing axe in her skirts and is accompanied by two giant hounds wherever she goes, is fearful of little except how to face the future.\u00a0 Reading her exploits for three books now, however, I have no doubts of her success.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third in Candace Robb\u2019s Kate Clifford series, set in 1400 York, finds much has changed in Kate\u2019s world.\u00a0 Kate, a widow who had been shackled by her late husband\u2019s debts, has at last paid them off.\u00a0 She\u2019s a happy mother to her wards \u2013 two of them her late husband\u2019s illegitimate children \u2013 but … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,10,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-2684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1400-york","tag-historical","tag-kate-clifford","tag-knights","tag-throwing-axe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2686,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions\/2686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}