Cursed in the Blood: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery

by Sharan Newman

Overview

After giving birth to a son, Catherine LeVendeur is looking forward to an idyllic life with her husband, Edgar, in Paris. Yet her contentment is shattered when she and Edgar receive tragic news from Scotland: Edgar's two oldest brothers have been ambushed and murdered, and Edgar must return home to help avenge their deaths.

Once in Scotland, Catherine is surprised to learn that Edgar's family is not what she imagined. His father, Waldeve, is a cold tyrant, and his remaining siblings are strange and secretive.

Separated from Edgar in their efforts to uncover the truth, Catherine becomes a stranger in a strange land, searching for refuge in a war-torn country at the same time she searches for her husband. Yet she knows that any haven she finds will only be temporary until she answers this question: Who among Waldeve's enemies hates him passionately enough to destroy his whole family--including, she fears, his new infant grandson?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933523309
Publisher:	Bella Rosa Books
Publication date:	06/01/2008
Series:	Catherine LeVendeur Series , #5
Edition description:	Reprint ed.
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Sharan Newman won Romantic Times magazine's Career Achievement Award for Historical Mystery in 1999. She lives in Oregon.

Editorial Reviews

Another chapter in the 12th-century life of Catherine LeVendeur (Strong As Death, 1996, etc.), now living in Paris with husband Edgar, son of Scottish Lord Waldeve, and their infant son James. Edgar's brother Robert has arrived from Scotland with news of the killing of two of their brothers and a nephew. Lord Waldeve, himself a heartless tyrant, wants Edgar back in Scotland to help find and wreak vengeance on the killers. Thus, Catherine, Edgar, Robert, baby James with nursemaid Willa, and Catherine's trader son Solomon (fearful of rising anti-Semitism in Paris) embark on a stormy sea voyage. Arriving at Waldeve's castle at Wedderlie, they're greeted by Waldeve's second wife Adalisa and their young daughter Margaret. The country is in chaos after the death of King Henry, with opposing forces everywhere, including the Bishopric at Durham, where Waldeve's brutal oldest son Duncan is supporting the false bishop William Cumin. Edgar and Robert, on the labyrinthine trail of their brothers' killers, are far from Wedderlie when the castle is torched. Catherine and the others barely escape the fire to begin an odyssey of hardship that ends with the revelation of the murky, almost indecipherable plot behind their travails. A score of subplots, a plethora of mostly unmemorable characters, and a glut of bloody encounters'all make for a wearying, no doubt historically correct, chronicle.

Kirkus Reviews