Review: A Murderous Procession *SPOILERS*

I'm going to interrupt the character conversations to make a review, as I just finished a book today and I want to write about it before I forget. (even though I completely forgot about Friday's post anyway...)

The book this time is called A Murderous Procession. It's the fourth book in a series by Ariana Franklin, though it's one of those series where each book could be a stand alone. All of her books are historical fiction, and all are murder mysteries. What I love about them is how historically accurate they are. Of course the main character is fictional, along with a few others, but it still has Henry II and mentions of the Normans. After my history class (Europe in the High Middle Ages) I understand a lot of the references and smaller details. It's great for anyone that loves European history, but might be a little too detailed for anyone who doesn't even know what a Cathar is...

Anyway, the main character is named Adelia Agular, a female doctor of death from Sicily. I won't go over the first three books, but by this book, she's been in England for seven years, and is finally going back to Sicily with a procession that includes the English Princess who is going to marry the Sicilian prince. in this group is someone out to kill her though. 

Ariana Franklin is in line with Agatha Christie when it comes to suspense, in my opinion (though I've only read one Agatha Christie book...) Although you have a suspicion at the beginning about who it is, through the rest of the story you begin to doubt and suspect other people. In this particular novel though, at the end I laughed in triumph because I had guessed right, so Franklin might have slipped up a bit here by giving away one clue too early. 

Now the best, and worst, part about this book is the very end. It's a huge cliff hanger. Honestly, someone is on the brink of death, and Franklin just ends it! Then guess what? She dies! Not the character, oh no. Ariana Franklin died in 2011, and never finished the series. I am going to be agonizing over this for months now. The reason why I say the ending is so good is because I didn't really like the character that might have died... and it was beautifully written. No important characters had died for a while, so I think it was called for.

Anyway, sorry for missing my Friday post, and I'll get back into the Character conversations on Wednesday. My next book review may take a while, because I'm now onto a book that's 1,252 pages long... Yay!