The Difficult Saint: Library Edition

Rating:
Summary: A Difficult Book to Read.
Review: I found this a difficult book to read even though it is a solid effort by Sharan Newman. It's more a book about the differences among faiths, Judaism and Christianity, Catholicism and other Christian sects. It was almost appropriate that I read the book during the Easter weekend because it is actually quite a religious effort. In this book Catherine, Edgar, Soloman and Catherine's father Hubert journey to Gernmany to save Catherine's sister Agnes who has been accused of murdering her new husband. She had just been married to him for three weeks when he died suddenly and painfully in their bedchamber. But readers are confronted with the religious unrest that occurred in Europe in 1146. Ms. Newman's research is impeccable and her characterizations and plots are superb, but that does not make her books easy to read. I found this one extremely difficult because we become so intimately acquainted with Catherine's father Hubert and his struggle to continue to deny his Jewishness while trying to keep up his Catholic front in order that he can remain available for his daughter and her young family.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Historical Mystery!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the first five Catherine LeVendeur books, and eagerly awaited "The Difficult Saint". I was not disappointed. Once again, Sharan Newman has blended history and mystery with great success. While following Catherine as she seeks to find the murderer of her sister's husband, I was fascinated by the background setting of religious turbulance and intolerance that influences her investigation and provides the reader with insights into the climate of those times. Especially important to me was the development of Catherine's understanding of the people that she loves, as well as her wonderful relationship with her husband Edgar. I loved this book, and eagerly await the next!

Rating:
Summary: Catherine and Edgar in Trier
Review: In this latest book, we get to see the lives of the aristocracy and the peasants in Trier. Catherine and her family deal with murder, family relationships, and offshoots of the established church. I am always fascinated with the glimpses of the Jewish communities as well as the disagreements within the Catholic Church. We get a feel for the difficulties of life in those days, and the strength needed to overcome them.

Rating:
Summary: Another great book in the Catherine series
Review: What a great historical fiction book this is. I'm always intrigued by the details in Ms. Newman's books. Her research is thorough and her characters are unique and enjoyable. This book is no exception. I enjoyed the parallels and differences she explored in Catherine and Agnes as sisters, and find the religious aspects to the book thought provoking. For those that have not read the rest of the series, I would recommend doing that first. But if you've read the other Catherine books, you'll enjoy this one too.

Rating:
Summary: Another solid effort in the Catherine and Edgar story
Review: When I first picked up this series, it was after I had read the Guinevere Trilogy, by the same author, Sharan Newman. My mom had gone to a conference for Mystery Writers and picked up a bunch of her books, including the first installment of her Catherine Levendeur Series. I fell in love with it, and each year my mom returns to the conference she gets me a signed copy of her latest adventure. The character was very headstrong then, but now, in this sixth part of the continuing series, Catherine has taken motherhood, and life in mideval France to a more mature level. It's very enjoyable to see how the characters of Edgar, Catherine, and their children have changed over the years in the stories, but it may not be as strong as in the first few.

In this novel, Catherine, her husband Edgar, and the rest of her family trek the miles to distant Germany to save her younger, estranged sister, Agnes, from an undetermined fate, as she was accused of the murder of her new husband. The conflicts are understandable and believable as we see her struggles to hold a family together in a time and place of racial anger and missunderstanding with the various culture clashes.

Sharan Newman's views and enterpretation of the time peroid are amazing and fantastic to see, but some of the plot becomes rediculous and confusing, as well as Catherine's strange newly-found, docile sense of motherhood. It seems that she is no longer taking on the mysteries of this novel, but leaving it to her husband. I enjoy this series very much. It is a must read! Take it from me, you should pick up this series, but don't be dissapointed if the attitude changes from book to book. The years do go by swiftly, and Catherine is, and always will be a little too headstrong for her family, no matter how any children she has! Try it out for yourself!