Margaret Frazer – författare

At the behest of his powerful patron, Joliffe journeys to France to act as a servant to the widowed duchess Jacquetta of Bedford?while actually training in spycraft. But when a member of the duchess?s household is murdered, Joliffe learns just how dangerous secrets can be...

Dame Frevisse must determine whether Sister Cecely, newly returned to the nunnery with her young son, is truly interested in repenting for her sins—or if she’s just in hiding after involvement in schemes that threaten everyone at St. Frideswide.

In harvest time of 1436, Joliffe''s troupe leader falls, leaving his players to find what work they can while he recovers. Joliffe finds work in a hospital where he unfortunately has to deal with Mistress Cisily Thorncoffyn, a widow expecting to be endlessly waited on for her mostly imaginary ailments. When patients begin mysteriously dying, Mistress Thorncoffyn loudly insists that someone is trying to kill her. With so many suspects wishing her ill, if not outright dead, Joliffe has no choice but to find out whose anger has turned to murderous hatred and whether-having missed their target-they mean to try again...

From the pages of the national bestselling Dame Frevisse mysteries.

While performing in the theatrical and religious festival of Corpus Christi Day in Coventry, Joliffe is summoned by Bishop Beaufort to use his skills as a spy to uncover the mysteries of the town''s elite. A merchant has gone missing, presumed dead-and members of Joliffe''s company are implicated in the crime. To uncover the truth, Joliffe must unravel the devilish machinations of a secret sect of heretics bent on destroying the Church.

It is the year of Our Lord''s grace 1431, and the nuns of England''s St. Frideswide sweetly chant their Paternosters behind gracious, trellised walls. But their quiet lives are shattered by the unwelcome visit of the hard-drinking, blaspheming dowager Lady Ermentrude, with her retinue of lusty maids and men, baying hounds, and even a pet monkey in tow. The lady demands wine, a feast, and her niece, the frail and saintly novice Thomasine.What she gets is her own strange and sudden death.Sister Frevisse, hosteler of the priory and amateur sleuth, fears murder. The most likely suspect is pious Thomasine . . . but Frevisse alone detects a clever web spun to entangle an innocent nun in the most unholy of passions—and the deadliest of deeds.

Sister Frevisse is sinfully good at discerning the mysteries of the soul—and solving the crimes of the human heart in this charming series.It''s Christmastime, and the sisters of St. Frideswide cannot turn away travellers, even the players knocking at the nunnery door. But along with the motley troupe comes the grievously wounded husband of the cloister''s scullery maid, Meg. They swear they found the drunken wastrel in a ditch, but the tale sounds like another song and dance. Especially when two dead bodies are waiting in the wings....Now Sister Frevisse must find out if one of the actors is a murderer in masquerade—or face a very unmerry Yuletide season.From the Paperback edition.

Performing at the wedding of Sir Edmund Deneby''s daughter, the player Joliffe has another task to perform—as a spy. As he uncovers the secrets of the Denebys'' sordid history, it becomes clear that this wedding celebration is destined to end in tragedy.

When his band of traveling players are taken in by a patron, Joliffe and company find that murder has taken their place in the spotlight--and it''s up to them to catch a killer in the act.

In the spring of 1435, Joliffe and his fellow players are sent to the village of Ashewell not only to stage plays, but to uncover some dark secrets about the town’s three wealthy families: the Ashewells, the Medcotes, and the Gosyns. A rivalry has been brewing among the families, entangling the entire town in a web of seduction, deception, and blackmail.

Matters go beyond the breaking point when someone turns to murder to settle their grievances.  And if one murder is good, why not another?  If all the world is a stage, then it’s up to Joliffe to bring the curtain down on this tragedy—before another man takes his final curtain call...

Joliffe and company play spies amongst the British aristocracy as lords and clergymen vie for the coveted position of regent to the young King Henry VI. But when men who know too much begin to die in violent ways, the players start to fear for their own lives.

In the summer of 1448, when Sir Ralph Woderove is found murdered near his estate, not even his family mourns. A hard, vicious man of many quarrels, Sir Ralph could have been killed by almost anyone. And though the consensus is that his soul has surely gone to Hell, Sir Ralph will continue to infuriate his heirs in death through the grossly inequitable terms of his estate’s settlement.   It falls to Dame Frevisse to escort Sir Ralph’s widow and daughter back to their manor, when another death occurs under questionable circumstances—making it clear that not all grievances have been laid to rest. And as family secrets are dragged out into the light, Dame Frevisse realizes that there is a murderer among them who will not rest until the Woderove legacy has been settled once and for all.

St. Mary’s nunnery is a place of prayer and healing for women—so it is surprising to see a man sprawled out in the cloister garden. Dead. Less surprising, to Dame Frevisse, was the identity of the victim. Master Montfort was not particularly liked by anyone in the town of Goring—even his own wife and clerk. As royal escheator, he was trying to settle a heated inheritance dispute between a wealthy woman and her supposed nephew.   Now Dame Frevisse must step in and untangle the fortunes and felonies in this complicated case of political and familial rivalries. But her real challenge is to put aside her feelings and serve justice for the murder of an unjust man.