{"id":6265,"date":"2025-02-25T06:58:29","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T14:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6265"},"modified":"2025-02-25T06:58:29","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T14:58:29","slug":"e-l-johnson-winters-poison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/e-l-johnson-winters-poison\/","title":{"rendered":"E.L. Johnson: Winter’s Poison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winter Murders #1<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There are not many mysteries set in the tumultuous court of King Stephen<\/a>\u00a0(1096-1154). A Winter\u2019s Poison<\/em>\u00a0by E.L. Johnson is certainly the first I have personally read. It follows teenage Baker\u2019s daughter Bronwyn, adept in the kitchen herself, as she is pulled into it making a fairly routine delivery. A nobleman named De Grecy orders fancy white rolls from her father\u2019s shop on a whim, and Bronwyn discovers they are intended for the king and queen only when she arrives to drop them off. However, as she is departing, she sees a cloaked figure fiddling with the food and tries to report it to the head cook. It\u2019s clear that someone has added mushrooms to the top of the rolls.<\/p>\n

No one has any interest in believing Bronwyn and the rolls are sent on. But when two men die, including De Grecy, her family is immediately suspected. Her father is thrown in jail and suspected of treason and Bronwyn is sent to the royal kitchen to work under the watchful eye of the head cook. Soon, the queen herself tasks Bronwyn with solving the murder before her father\u2019s execution day – leaving her potential prey to enemies from all sides.<\/p>\n

However, she also finds herself with many unusual allies as well. There\u2019s handsome squire Rupert, vain beauty Lady Alice, and even Sir Nicholas, the leader of the king and queen\u2019s guard. Though many people dismiss Bronwyn due to her age, she is capable and sure of herself. She is also very firm on boundaries concerning her body, and even turns down a marriage proposal from someone who steals a kiss from her.<\/p>\n

With a sprawling cast, strong heroine, and obvious research done in the time period, this book is a lot of fun. The plot keeps moving along and keeps the pages turning. Reader\u2019s who enjoy historical mysteries, but are looking for something a little different, this will likely fit the bill. E.L. Johnson is far from a first time writer, but it appears that most of her work is historical romance. There are definitely sections where the love interest is lovingly described, but there\u2019s nothing spicy in this book.<\/p>\n

The mystery is solved by the book\u2019s ending, but the story continues past it to set up a sequel. The second in the series already has a release date. To me, the ending was one of the weaker sections as it felt rushed – straying from resolving the mysteries and tying up things for the characters to make the reader very sure there will be a book two. Despite this, I will certainly be picking up the sequel when it comes out.\u00a0\u00a0— Margaret Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Winter Murders #1 There are not many mysteries set in the tumultuous court of King Stephen\u00a0(1096-1154). A Winter\u2019s Poison\u00a0by E.L. Johnson is certainly the first I have personally read. It follows teenage Baker\u2019s daughter Bronwyn, adept in the kitchen herself, as she is pulled into it making a fairly routine delivery. A nobleman named De … 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":[4],"tags":[2006,2008,2007,10,2005,81,2009],"class_list":["post-6265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1100s-england","tag-dragonblade-publishing","tag-e-l-johnson","tag-historical","tag-king-stephen","tag-margaret-agnew","tag-winters-poison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6265","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=6265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6267,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6265\/revisions\/6267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}