When Sir Ralph is found with his head bashed in on a hunting trip, everyone assumes it was a poacher. No one in the family is especially heart broken. They go through the motions of a funeral, including retrieving eleven-year-old Ursula from St. Frideswide’s home. A Benedictine nun, Dame Frevisse, is sent to accompany the young girl home. Despite being met with resistance, Dame Frevisse insists on trying to solve Sir Ralph’s death, along with a subsequent one.

Getting little help from the family and even less of the truth, Dame Frevisse perseveres. When the truth does win out, Dame Frevisse is not sure what to do with the truth, since the truth could do more harm than the lies. The family seems better off living the lies publicly, able to heal from the years of Sir Ralph.

The Hunter’s Tale is full of a medieval period detail and details of families and relationships. Readers will likely figure out who murdered Sir Ralph and why early on. They may also feel empathy with the family and may feel as if Dame Frevisse is putting her own morals ahead of a suffering family’s wishes. She may not remember the fragile dynamics of a family and now that she has found out the truth, she must wrestle with what to do with that information. In addition, she must try to abide by the family’s wishes and live silently with this knowledge.

While the period detail is sure to please historians, the plot may not move fast enough for some tastes. The family saga may seem too drawn out to some and to others will be what holds the mystery together. Details about wills, estates and inheriting in medieval times, along with arranged marriages and second marriages add a level of interest that will please detail oriented readers. While the mystery is easily solved, they way in which it will affect the family may keep readers interested until the end. Dame Frevisse may not have been integral in solving the mystery, but she goes a long way to helping a family in pain heal. She should take some solace in that and not worry about worldly justice being meted out.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry