The Widows Guild: A Francis Bacon Mystery

The Francis Bacon Mystery Series, Book 3

By: Anna Castle

Narrated by: Joel L Froomkin

London, 1588. Someone's turning Catholics into widows - and masking the crimes under cover of Armada fever. Francis Bacon is charged with identifying the murderer by the Andromache Society, a widows' guild led by his formidable aunt. His assistants, Thomas Clarady and Lady Alice Trumpington, are also struggling for control over their own lives. Bacon must free his friends from the Tower, track an exotic poison, and untangle multiple crimes to determine if the motive is patriotism, greed, lunacy - or all three.

Longlisted for the 2017 Historical Novel Society Award.

©2015 Anna Castle (P)2018 Anna Castle

Social constraints vs. tacit acceptance

There is, in each of this series, a deft treatment of the tension between the social constraints and the tacit acceptance of social / sexual behaviours of the era. Trumpington has flouted convention by dressing as a male and studying law but believes she must marry into her own class before she can have her heart's desire. Clarady has a conventional appetite for every pretty girl but longs for the more complicated, unconventional and intellectual Lady Alice. Francis Bacon has a traditional view of social conventions and structures but is in same-sex relationship/s.

It is necessary, of course, to suspend disbelief as actual historical figures are woven in and out of the the fictional mystery.

I hope Audible produces all of Castle's intriguing books.