The Alehouse Murders (Templar Knight Mystery Series #1) Book

Bascot de Marins is a Templar Knight battling with his faith and the decision of whether to stay in the order or leave. While he is contemplating his future, he is sent to stay with the sheriff of Lincoln (England) and his wife. A string of murders occurs during his stay and he his charged with the task of discovering the murderer.

It was such a pleasure to be transported to the times of Knights, castles, feasts and tournaments in England. I think these kinds of settings are magical for me. And Ash does a wonderful job of bringing them to life…from the hubbub of the castle during the festivities, to the "segregated" elements of society: the Jews and the lepers. Bascot de Marins is a great protagonist, once again, a character battling internal conflict at the same time he's battling external conflicts. I absolutely love Gianni. Ash created him in such a way that you can't help but want to take care of him yourself, but he and Bascot seem to have a symbiotic relationship; it's hard to imagine them parting ways. I was equally entranced by Nicolaa de la Haye. A strong, assertive female in this time period is attractive. Since I'm planning to follow this series, I hope to see more development of her character. Ash seemed to start to develop her, but then not really take it anywhere. There were also great supporting characters that played rather minor roles. Roget I found to provide some humor, even though he was supposed to be feared by all the people of Lincoln. The way he used that fear was rather cunning. And Lady Hilde played a great spy.

While I could see the end coming, I wasn't really paying a lot of conscious attention to it because I was very caught up in the development of the characters. Language more in sync with the time period would have been nice, but for many that would probably be a drawback.

I really enjoyed this novel. Parts of it made me think of The Sound of Music. I will be checking into the next of this series.