Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. I enjoyed this book as I love to read about this period. The mystery was very compelling and you can tell how much research went into the book. I loved the whole thing

This is the second in the Sandal Castle series, I enjoyed it but have to admit that part of my enjoyment is because I know Sandal and is castle well, so could envisage all the places that the book was set in. I liked the fact that a little known character from history, John de la Pole plays a central role and I particularly liked that Richard III was shown in a good light! I enjoyed the book but felt that at times it dragged a little and I found myself getting a bit bored, overall, however I felt the story was a good one and the villain and perpetrator of the murders wasn’t obvious,

I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review of it.
I don’t often read mystery, but when I do, I enjoy the thrill of it.

Mystery novels can have an unsatisfying end, which ruins the entirety of the book, and mystery novels can have characters jump to some wild conclusions for the sake of wrapping up all the loose ends.

It is a tough line to walk, making the character learn enough to solve all the clues, but when done well it makes the story much better.

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Trust no one…
1485, Yorkshire, England
King Richard III has held the English throne for two years. But the country is rife with rumours about the fate of his nephews, the two princes imprisoned in the Tower of London, and there is a continual threat of rebellion by Henry Tudor.
King Richard's heir, John de la Pole, presides over the stronghold of Sandal Castle. When a suspicious death occurs in his household, he instructs Sir Giles Beeston, the newly appointed judge, to the Manor Court to investigate.
But before Sir Giles can get to the bottom of the murder, more grisly deaths occur.
Are the deaths connected? Is there a plot against the King?
And can Sir Giles unmask the killer before he too falls victim to the killer…?

Title: The Fool’s Folly
Author: Keith Moray
Rating:
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Page Count: 233


A Story Not of Our Time

Stories set in our world and time are often of little interest to me. I can enjoy them, if the story is interesting enough, but I much prefer travelling to a time or place where I couldn’t possibly have lived.

The medieval period is probably my favourite time period, with the Victorian Era a close second.

A medieval mystery is an interesting combination, because often we associate mysteries with evidence, DNA samples, camera footage, etc. That isn’t possible when your greatest scientific advancement is a siege engine.

When all those things are missing, logic and good old detective work takes hold.

The Fool’s Folly captures those two features well. Moray creates great characters that show their intelligence from the beginning, and the book explores it along the way. Their conclusions aren’t drawn out of nowhere, they make sense and you can follow them.

Politics at Play
A major issue that can easily arise when a book is set in medieval England is the politics. People could spend their whole life studying medieval England. The lord and ladies, the wars, the political game of chess.

It can be exhausting, and easily become hard to follow.

The Fool’s Folly does suffer from this at times. It never becomes impossible to follow, but there are moments it becomes tough to understand everyone’s relationship to the story.

Other than those few moments, the politics of the book aren’t a major plot line. The characters that are introduced are very few, and their positions in the world are easy to understand.


Left Unsatisfied

I wasn’t a fan of the way this story ended, but to be honest I can’t explain why.

I enjoyed the characters well enough, the logic to come to the realization of who the killer was, was sound and made sense. The final scenes of the book weren’t out of place.

Thinking on it, I think I was left unsatisfied with who the killer ended up being. I enjoyed their justification, I just didn’t like how they left the people’s lives they were involved with.

Final Thoughts

The Fool’s Folly is a short read, and if you enjoy mysteries, then you should pick it up.

A short book like this won’t take much time to get through, but you’ll enjoy trying to solve the murder for yourself.

The politics at play won’t disrupt the story for too long, but be aware that they can have an effect on your understanding.

Murder and intrigue in the court of Richard III, the disappearance of his 2 nephews, and rumors everywhere bring in the skills of investigator Sir Giles Beeston to determine the murderer of a body found at Sandal Castle. Well researched, this is a fine example of historical fiction. Recommended.

1485 - Sandal Castle, West Yorkshire. Sir Giles Beeston, Constable of the castle and judge to the Manor of Wakefield Court, must investigate the death of the jester found dead in the castle moat. Two more deaths quickly follow the next day. Are they connected to the death of Ned Bunce?

I loved this historical mystery! The characters were interesting and well-drawn. Sir Giles Beeston has a strong sense of justice. He understands that the law and justice are not the same thing. He has a firm belief that the law applies to all and that everyone deserves justice. This was the first book I have read by author Keith Moray, but I will definitely go back and read the first book in this series before continuing with the third.

The story was fast-paced with a great mystery and interesting history. For example, the Doctrine of Signatures is mentioned early in the book. This was a belief that plants held signatures that indicated there use (a helmet-shaped flower was good for headaches and wounds to the head).

4.5* - Highly recommend

This is the second book in a series but works as a stand-alone. I was able to follow the story with no problem. I enjoyed this read and recommend to anyone that likes this genre. It was really interesting to see the courtroom procedure during this era. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC. All opinions are mine.

I LOVED this book!

Set during the reign of Richard III, 'The Fool's Folly' connects us to the past in vivid and exciting way. The story opens with a mysterious figure fleeing for his life, the passage is rich in descriptive detail placing the reader firmly in the story - the mystery is set, and even if you wanted to you cannot put the book down until you have found out who he is and if he will escape!

The novel is rooted in history, drawing on the some of the well known people of the time, Margaret Beaufort, De La Pole, the Stanleys, Richard III, The Duke of Buckingham and so on, but perhaps more importantly it gives a narrative voice to fictional characters based on roles in the households that are not usually explored, for example Dickon the Falconer, Doctor Musgrave and his daughter Alice, and of course Ned Bunce, the Earl of Lincoln's jester!

The narrative perspective seamlessly switches between characters, meaning the narrative events move swiftly and we are left piecing together they story. The main perspective is that of Sir Giles, whose presences is reassuringly fair and methodical. His job as Constable of the Castle, and the relentless pursuit of justice for the 'commoners' deaths ensure that the reader empathises with him and this is essential for the plot twists and turns we get later on!

The only downside was that I couldn't put it down and stayed reading until the early hours of the morning to get it finished!

For any one who loves Phillipa Gregory and Kate Mosse, this is a must read! This was the first novel by Keith Moray that I have read - I am now on a mission to find and read everything else he has written!

1485 England. King Richard on the throne and though he is a good king, the countryside is rife with rumours - about his marriages, the deaths of his own wife and son, the two famous nephews whom no one has seen (the King also admits he has not seen them for a long time).


In this setting Sandal Castle has not been without its murder and mayhem. One murder in the castle under the watchful eyes of the heir to the throne is bad enough, but then when more grisly murders take place, seemingly random, no connection to any known opposition the entire castle is on full alert as to whether what is taking place is actually with an aim of toppling King Richard off the throne and for the Tudors to get hold of it.

A lot of treachery, scheming and the manipulative greed of the aristocracy and the never ending wars and plunder in order to be on top of it all seems to epitomize England's politics at the time. There was a never ending stream of deaths all with the aim of maintaining one's position.

How many families were torn apart, children orphaned women widowed long before their time, did not seem to matter to these families.

The Fool’s Folly by Keith Moray
Sandal Castle Medieval Thriller #2

Legal mystery and thriller set in 1485 has Sir Giles Beeston working his skills as constable/judge to find out who is killing one person after another. Are the murders all perpetrated by the same killer or is more than one at play in and around Sandal Castle?

What I liked:
* The plot, setting and writing
* Sir Giles: mental giant though in this book he was slow to find the culprit
* John de la Pole, Early of Lincoln: a potential king, writer of verse, good person and true to his friends
* The way the story is revealed a bit at a time
* The Falconer: would like to know more about him – strong and dedicated to his charges
* Musgrove and his daughter: capable healers and interesting characters
* Knowing that some of the people in the story really did exist and being reminded of some history I had forgotten
* Looking up Sandal Castle and finding out it is in ruins but that it was once a glorious castle
* Finding out who was behind the murders
* Seeing justice done

What I did not like:
* Knowing that some of the characters in the story, ones that I liked, will not live long after the time this story was set in
* Being reminded of the intrigue and evil that existed in the past and realizing it still exists today

Did I enjoy this story? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Sapere Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

This book was a thrilling tale of murder and mystery set in the court of King Richard III. It is the second in the series, but it works well as a stand-alone novel as well - I didn't feel like I was missing any information on the characters that wasn't explained during this book.

Interestingly, the main focus of the book is the jduge, Sir Giles Beeston, and it often read like a courtroom thriller. The Earl of Lincoln, heir to the throne, has discovered his Fool, Ned Bunce, floating face-down in the castle moat. When Sir Giles investigates, he and the castle doctor perform a postmortem, they discover that Bunce was poisoned. When Sir Giles starts to investigate with his trusted assistant Will, more murders start occurring, getting more strange as they happen. While Sir Giles starts to wonder whether this is all a greater plot to murder the King, he loses sight of what is really going on...

I really enjoyed this read! It was interesting to read about 15th century postmortems and what they could really determine, see the courtroom procedures, and the politics that surround a monarchy. I became invested in the story, and literally had an "oh NOOO" moment once the killer was discovered. It was a quick, light read that I would recommend.

1485 During the reign of Richard III. Sir Giles Beestom is the Constable of Sandal Castle, under heir presumptive John de la Pole, and Judge of the Manor Court. When Dickon the falconer discovers a pigeon carrying a message, which he passes to Sir Giles, events start to unravel, with the first death. But who is the priest escaping from the hired assassins. But more deaths will occur before the motives are revealed.
Although the second in the series it can be read as a standalone story as events have moved on more than a hundred years.
An enjoyablewell-written historical mystery, with its good plot and likeable characters.

A good historical mystery, well researched and well written.
It was an engrossing and entertaining read and I liked the vivid and detailed historical background, the characters and the solid mystery that kept me guessing.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

‘I think that I shall write a poem about him. I shall call it The Fools’ Folly.’

1485, Yorkshire, England. King Richard III has held the English throne for two years. His hold on the throne is under threat from Henry Tudor, and the country is rife with speculation about the fate of the two princes in the Tower of London. Following the deaths of both his son and then his wife, Richard III has named his nephew John de la Pole his heir. John de La Pole, Earl of Lincoln, is to preside over a meeting of the Council of the North at Sandal Castle. Sir Giles Beeston is the Earl’s Constable of the Castle and newly appointed judge to the Manor of Wakefield Court.

An unexpected death occurs in the Earl’s household, and Sir Giles and his assistant Will Holland investigate. But this is only the first of several deaths. Who is behind these deaths and why? There is no shortage of suspects.

I really enjoyed this novel. There’s plenty of intrigue, the main characters are well developed and there were a couple of unexpected twists. Are the deaths connected? Are these deaths part of a plot against the King? Sir Giles himself is in danger as he seeks the truth.

This is the second novel in Keith Moray’s Sandal Castle Medieval Thriller series. I’ve read and enjoyed them both and would recommend this series to anyone interested in crime in a medieval setting.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Sapere Books for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

1485, Yorkshire, England
King Richard III has held the English throne for two years. But the country is rife with rumours about the fate of his nephews, the two princes imprisoned in the Tower of London, and there is a continual threat of rebellion by Henry Tudor. King Richard's heir, John de la Pole, presides over the stronghold of Sandal Castle. When a suspicious death occurs in his household, he instructs Sir Giles Beeston, the newly appointed judge, to the Manor Court to investigate.
But before Sir Giles can get to the bottom of the murder, more grisly deaths occur.
This is the second book in the series & once again it’s a well written page turning read, we move forward in time to the fateful year of 1485. I found the book to be well researched with well portrayed characters there was a lovely mix of intrigue, mystery, betrayal & loyalty. I particularly enjoyed the mix of fact & fiction & once started found the book very hard to put down
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

This is the second book of a trilogy. Now we are in the reign of King Richard III and people are grumbling about how he is not the rightfully King. Not only does Sir Richard have to deal with traitors plots he has a serial killer to track down. Sadly this latest mystery will hit him close to home.

THE FOOL'S FOLLY by KEITH MORAY is an exciting medieval thriller which takes place in the north of England during the reign of Richard III. It is the second novel in the Sandal Castle Medieval Thriller series.
It is a well researched book with some historical characters and others who are fictitious, all blending well to make a riveting story of intrigue, betrayal, loyalty and romance. Add to this some grisly murders and you have all the makings of a really good thriller!
I like the way the author describes life in 15th century England, and particularly like the description of the legal proceedings headed up by Sir Giles Beeston, judge of the Manor Court.
I recommend The Fool's Folly to anyone who enjoys this genre.
I was given a free copy of the book by NetGalley from Sapere Books. The opinions in this review are completely my own.