Quite an enjoyable 3rd installment in the Christine de Pizan mysteries series. This is meant to be set in the late 14th century, sometime before Christine began writing professionally. Oh, did I not mention de Pizan was Europe's first professional female author? Way back in the 1400s.

I think I enjoyed the last book more personally, but this was a good continuation of the series in which Christine now has something of a reputation for solving crimes. Christine is again assisted by friends old and some new, this time a literally company of 'fools'. What we might call jesters. The Queen of France's entertainers, who are far from foolish.

All the books in this series (3 so far) revolve around the French royal court in some way, and so the characters get caught up with royal intrigues and scandals which adds an interesting flavour to each story. This one concerns the controversial Duchess of Orleans Valentina Visconti. An Italian family who were something like early forbears of the Medici. Lionel of Clarence, second son of Edward III of England also married into the family and died shortly afterwards. (Some rumours say he was poisoned by her family.)
The mystery is complicated with plenty of twists and turns, but I sort of felt a little short changed at the end when the culprit was revealed. I feel it's one of the rules of mysteries that the murderer has to be a character who is known or at least, that he sleuth (and so therefore the reader) has met.

Finally, I felt that this novel had one other weakness that came out in the first novel. Christine feels rather too modern for the late 14th century setting. Yes, she was a professional author, and yes she did defend women in some of her books. but not all of her attitudes are related to that. She totally rejects all beliefs in witchcraft/alchemy etc, and there is no real reason for her to believe as such. I'm surprised she isn't an atheist as well, but I suppose that would be kind of stretching historical credibility a bit too far.

It's also very difficult to believe that she would not have had any interest whatsoever in domestic pursuits. If you read her works she clearly believed women should know how to run a household. Yes, she was unconventional in many ways, but not as much as she is in this book. At times our heroine just feels like a modern person in fancy dress.

Thanks to Severn House for allowing me to read this title through Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Give woman a book and she will uncover a murder… or two.

chose this book for the cover and description. When NetGalley approved me to read and review this novel I did not even think it was 3rd installment in adventures of Chistine de Pizan…

I’d love to read them all now.

However, I did not find it very difficult to catch up with narrative (missing out on the first 2 installments).

What I found especially interesting and intriguing were little snippets and quotes from Christine de Pizan at the beginning of the chapters.

First, I thought it was a nice trick by the author to create as pseudo-historical persona for her character and give her a voice beyond the novels. However, quick Google search crashed my supposition. Christine de Pizan did exist. She was an educated women, a poet, a publicist and many other wonderful and not-so-womanly (by her times) things.

Plus, author dropped in a few more historical personalities (kings an duchesss aside), making the novel that much more interesting and intriguing. Creating a fictional story on the basis of real personalities – is the real magic of writing, in my view.

I loved Christine. I absolutely loved her noisy and nosy family, especially her mother, understanding and accomodating Italian woman. Christine’s kids and adopted dogs, her naive and superstitious (even more so than her mum) maid… and the fools

What a bunch of smart, witty and resourceful people Duke’s fools are. I know court fools are not what they seem (since the time I read Dumas’) but this bunch are very interesting characters to follow. And yes, it is not such a bad place to find yourself – ‘in the company of fools’.

Is there a happy end? There is an open end. Christine is to have many more adventures, I hope. She does manage to uncover the plot, but… you would have to read to understand.

Also, this book contains many interesting tidbits on superstition, medieval medicine and gender relations. You’d be surprised how many of them survived till our days.

Five stars from me.

I very much enjoyed this book. It is well written and I think this will be one I will read again in the future.

I do highly recommend

This was an excellent read, gripping and entertaining.
I loved the well thought and interesting cast of characters, the well researched and vivid historical background and the solid mystery that kept me guessing.
It's the first book I read in this series and won't surely be the last.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Thanks to Severn House and Netgalley for an advance copy of this book. I hadn't read the previous two books in this series, which was definitely to my detriment. I persevered and, while the storyline was interesting, I finished it feeling like I just came in at the wrong time. Will I go back and read the previous books? I'm not sure as there is so much historical mystery out there that I have enjoyed far more.
Being well-written and having an interesting protagonist gets this book 3 stars.

An abandoned baby sets off a chain of events that surprise even Christine de Pizan. It's 1396 Paris and the French court is a hotbed of jealousy, plotting, and political maneuvering. Valentina, the Duchess of Orleans, has been the target of gossip and rumor mongering. The charge of sorcery or witchcraft meant something in those days. Now, the baby has charged up the rumor mill. Many of the characters were real people (including, btw, Christine herself) and there are a lot of them. You might find yourself looking for more info and, like me, learning something. This isn't the easiest of mysteries but it's a rewarding read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of the medieval mystery.

Christine de Pisan is In the Company of Fools as Tania Bayard entangles her in the plots at the court of mad King Louis. Someone is trying to have Duchess Valentina declared a witch and executed in order to weaken her husband the Duke of Orleans, brother and regent of the mad king. Christine is a widow who makes her living copying manuscripts and books for the French court. She is trying to find out who is murdering people at court and plotting against the royal family. Dark intrigue and great historical plots.

I did not realize this was part of a series when I requested this book and I don’t think this is a great stand-alone. I did like the story well enough that I will read the first 2 in this series and then re-read this one. Thank you publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

I really enjoy historical fiction mysteries and couldn't wait to read this book. I enjoyed the mystery though I was not fond of many characters.

This is the third in the series featuring Christine de Pisan, and I would suggest starting from the beginning with "In the Presence of Evil" and "In the Shadow of the Enemy" as many of the characters in this instalment have their origins in the first two books, as does the historical background.

It is three years since the events in the previous books; the French court is still a hot bed of political intrigue, the King is still battling bouts of insanity, and witchcraft and sorcery are being touted as the causes for all that has befallen France.

Someone is out to blacken the name of Valentina Visconti, Duchess of Orleans, and it the Fools of the Duke, her husband, that provide both the impetus and clues that Christine will need to solve this mystery.

I am enjoying the series as the setting is medieval France and features Christine de Pisan. These would fall into the category of mystery; they are not particularly action driven though do provide us with an insider's view of the French Court. I am looking forward to the next in the series.

Christine de Pizan is at work when the Duke of Orleans' fools bring her a babe found in the gardens. It isn't hard to see the mischief at hand to implicate the Duchess in witchcraft. Christine sets out to follow the thread to its source. Or will danger find her and her friends first?

Jumping into this series without reading the first two books was not a good idea. There are a lot of characters to keep track of. If it had stayed with Christine instead of jumping to her friends, I think I would have followed it better. Christine made an excellent heroine to follow as she balances her work with family.

I will give the book credit for giving the reader all the relevant information about who is who. There's just so many of them! I also didn't care for how the narrative jumped around from person to person as I found myself confused.

Overall, not a terrible read, Just not an immediate favorite for me.