In the Company of Fools

by Tania Bayard

Overview

A baby abandoned in the palace gardens leads scribe sleuth Christine de Pizan into a mystery involving murder, superstition and scandal in fourteenth-century France.

Paris, 1396. Scribe Christine de Pizan is shocked when the Duke of Orleans' fools find a baby, wrapped in rags and covered in sores, abandoned in the palace gardens. Was there really a wicked plan to substitute the child for the queen's own baby daughter and blame the Duchess of Orleans, Valentina Visconti? Who would commit such an evil act, and why?

Accused of being a sorceress, Valentina is the victim of much slander and has powerful enemies at the palace, where rumours of witchcraft and superstition run riot. Convinced of the duchess's innocence, Christine is determined to uncover the truth, and soon makes a number of disturbing discoveries. Could the palace fools be the key to unlocking the mystery?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780296784
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	01/27/2022
Series:	A Christine de Pizan Mystery , #3
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.55(w) x 8.74(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tania Bayard is a freelance writer and lecturer specializing in medieval art, culture, and horticulture. She has taught art history at Fordham, Rutgers, and Hofstra universities and is the author of a number of non-fiction books, including A Medieval Home Companion: Housekeeping in the Fourteenth Century. Previously, she was the curator of the Biblical Garden at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and assistant horticulturist at The Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Editorial Reviews

03/09/2020

It’s 1386 in Bayard’s immersive third French Medieval mystery (after 2019’s In the Shadow of the Enemy), and the bouts of madness of Charles VI are of growing concern. Some members of the king’s court suggest that they’re the result of sorcery on the part of Valentina Visconti, Duchess of Orléans and wife of the king’s brother. Meanwhile, in an atmosphere rife with accusations of witchcraft and evil omens, the king’s fools find a baby girl wrapped in dirty rags, her face blackened by grease, in the king’s garden. In this condition, the child would be considered “a ‘gift’ from the Devil” and destroyed. To spare the baby this fate, the fools ask court scribe Christine de Pizan for help. She takes the infant home and vows to find her mother. When a woman is found dead in the garden the next day, Christine suspects a connection. As she delves deeper, she uncovers a sordid tale of revenge and murder. Christine’s sound observations stand in nice contrast to the prevailing belief in magic. Fans of well-researched historical mysteries will be rewarded. Agent: Josh Getzler, HSG Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

An intriguing premise and a dexterously executed story

Booklist on In the Presence of Evil

The liberal sprinkling of quotations, many from the real de Pizan's own works, lend this intriguing tale an air of historical authenticity

Booklist on In the Shadow of the Enemy

Readers will enjoy the nicely constructed mystery as well as the well-researched trip to fourteenth-century France, highlighted by an interesting backstory concerning the contents of the royal library

Booklist

Readers will enjoy the nicely constructed mystery as well as the well-researched trip to fourteenth-century France, highlighted by an interesting backstory concerning the contents of the royal library

Booklist

2020-03-02
A young French scribe, risking everything, turns sleuth to save the life and reputation of a slandered duchess.

Paris, 1396. A dark figure ventures into a disreputable neighborhood to receive a dirty infant from a gnarled crone. Not long after, the baby is handed off to a surprised Christine de Pizan by a quartet of fools who serve the Duke of Orléans, each with an animal nickname: Giliot, Hanotin, Coquinet, and Blondel. Christine, a scribe, has been copying a book for the Duchess of Orléans, Valentina Visconti. When the fools claim that the baby was found in the palace gardens and insist that Christine take charge of it, she gives it to her mother for safekeeping. As the kingdom’s turmoil is deepened by the grave illness of the king, gossipmongers spread dangerous rumors about Valentina, depicting her as an evil sorceress. The murders of two young women, the prostitute Fleur and the young newlywed Klara, who lived with Christine and her mother after Klara’s groom disappeared, seem somehow connected to the secret baby. The surprise reappearance of Klara’s husband, Martin du Bois, who claims the baby and declares that her name is Bonne, puts yet another spin on the story. Valentina’s enemies weave a tale that she murdered Klara and plans to swap the orphan baby for the queen’s. As one of the Duchess’ only supporters in the court, and with considerable experience as a sleuth, Christine feels compelled to clear her name.

Bayard vividly immerses the reader in the complex and perilous world of medieval France.

Kirkus Reviews