The Enchanter's Forest

Subtitled A Hawkenlye Mystery, this novel is the tenth in a series of mystery stories set in the late twelfth century.

Readers addicted to the series will certainly enjoy the latest addition, in which a familiar cast of characters including the Abbess Helewise, the knight Josse d'Acquin and his mysterious lover Joanna unravel the events surrounding the death of one Florian of Southfirth, events involving a possibly fraudulent set of miracle working bones.

If this is your first Hawkenlye mystery, as it was mine, you may get the feeling that Josse and co have intricate backstories of which you know nothing, and which are sometimes essential to understanding the complex set of relationships between the characters. Even so, this is something of an enjoyable page turner, full of medieval red herrings and not too serious a read.

How convincing you find the C12 setting may depend on how far you are willing to suspend disbelief over matters of cleanliness morals and daily life....but on the whole the background is well sustained. There is a very strong element of magic and mysticism in the novel, as the title suggests. Again you need to be able to accept the mainly benevolent Wiccan subtext and more seriously, it could be plausible that in remote forest areas such as this Wealden setting, nature religions existed alongside Christianity at this date.

In summary: if you are a Hawkenlye fan, you've probably read this one by now; if not, my advice would be to obtain some of the earlier books and if you like them, move on to this novel.