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Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie |
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 Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie byKathy Lynn Emerson Kensington Books 256 pages, April 2000 ISBN 1575665468 Reviewed by Diane Gotfryd Unsentimental and chaffed by her constricted role in Elizabethan England, Susanna, unloved wife of Sir Robert Appleton, seizes an opportunity to escape her regulated estates in favor of the decaying boyhood home of her absent husband in northern England. The old caretaker in charge of the place has been found dead, in circumstances described in the title, and the entire staff has fled in fear of the ghost they believe killed him. More interested in fixing a sputtering chimney problem and replacing windows in the drafty heap of a place, Susanna soon finds more pressing issues after she and her trusty servants see the ghost for themselves. But do ghosts leave footprints in the snow? Do they light candles? Susanna thinks not, and the hunt begins not only for the murderous prankster but for his or her motive. The only neighbor, a stout woman with the bearing of a widow yet whose husband is very much alive, seems to be a woman Susanna could admire. But what of her strange young daughter? And why is it a secret that another daughter, now dead, was the 5th wife of Sir Robert’s lecherous father? Did his tumble down the stairs years ago result from a helpful push? What of her neighbor’s herb garden, with its poisonous plants? Impatient with her progress and also with her obstructive lawyer, Susanna sends her servants out to gather information. As the pieces come together, Sir Robert grudgingly arrives, his own agenda hidden from his wife, and the solution to the puzzle falls as swiftly as the snow, trapping all the parties together. Readers who have already enjoyed excellent recent books of this era, The Poyson Garden by Karen Harper and The Doublet Affair by Fiona Buckley, will find this first in a series disappointingly skimpy on the intrigue and politics of the time. The author’s casual depiction of the environment of the time is deft and pleasing. Although everyone from lords to servants speaks alike, the plot moves along. Certain subplots, such as a romance between two servants, and the doings of Sir Robert, add nothing to the story. Because so many of the characters carry the point of view, it took me a while to decide that Susanna was the person to follow. Despite, or maybe because of these flaws, Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie will suit the appetite of any cozy fan leery of too much history yet looking for an entrée into this genre. |
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