I have a weekness for historical detective fiction... This one is set in the late 12C, and centres on a saracen women doctor who specialises in what you'd now call forensic medicine - can you imagine! Set in Cambridge. So there's a fair amount of culture shock being portrayed, the depiction of the local dialect being particualy harsh. The accuracy was also a little off, but but that's a problem with setting a novel in a period, should it be accurate or just evoke the period? It does the latter, and does it quite well. It works as escapism, kept me guessing who-dun-it until the reveal and then polished the story of nicely. First in the series, and I'd read the second based on this one.
