Another wonderful book from Graham Brack in which our intrepid hero investigates a murder, meets not one but two beautiful women, and dreams about breaking his vow of celibacy. Will he or won't he? You must read it to find out.

In The Noose's Shadow Master Mercurius is back in his University after his successful visit to England. When he is requested to help a man who may have been wrongly arrested for committing a murder he leaps straight in. I am pretty sure by now that he prefers detective work to lecturing university students of whom he has a rather low opinion.

As usual the historical background is fascinating, the mystery intriguing and the humour deft and dry. A real pleasure to read and I am hoping for more books in this series!

Graham Brack's Master Mercurius novels are by far the most delightful historical mysteries I know of. The central character is well-developed and sympathetic. He's also quirky, which makes for a good deal of humor without turning the novels into slapstick. They are, in fact, the kind of novels that will have you laughing out loud and driving anyone else in the room up the wall as you keep interrupting their activities to say, "Just listen to this sentence!"

In The Noose's Shadow, Master Mercurius is attempting save a probably (though not certainly) innocent man from being convicted of killing a neighbor and summarily hung. Confession: I guessed the real killer pretty early on. Second confession: it didn't reduce my enjoyment one iota. The secondary characters in this novel are particularly engaging, with a delightful subplot of a small town mayor trying to marry his daughter off to Mercuius—which isn't going to happen, because while Mercurius is ostensibly Protestant, but is actually an ordained Catholic priest.

If you enjoy historical mysteries that have a light touch, grab any of the Master Mercurius titles you can find, shut yourself off somewhere you won't be interrupted, and start reading!

I received a free electronic review copy from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

I recently read The Noose's Shadow by Graham Brack. It's not about a beer loving policeman in Prague but a clergyman in the Netherlands during the seventeenth century. Although he also likes beer and solves mysteries, there is not much likeness between them. This time after returning from his mission in England we find Master Mercurius trying to solve who murdered Wolf the farmer? We also get to follow the difficulties Mercurius has with not getting married. I find myself liking this series more and more for every book Brack writes and have to thank #SapereBooks and #Netgalley for making them available to me. I also must thank @GrahamBrack for coming up with these characters. Keep up the good work please.

“‘A man has been murdered in Oegstgeest. His neighbour has been arrested and taken away, and his wife has asked me to prove his innocence.’
Hop nodded. ‘Is she attractive?’
‘What’s that got to do with it?’
‘I just wondered how she got you to work for nothing.’
‘I’ll have you know this is an act of Christian charity,’ I protested.”

The Noose’s Shadow is the fourth book in the Master Mercurius Mysteries series by British author, Graham Brack. On a cold January night in 1680, Mercurius finds he has promised an attractive young wife from a nearby village that he will save her husband from the noose.

Following advice from a colleague in the Faculty of Law, Mercurius cleverly gains the co-operation of the village Mayor, and prepares to question the accused, one Jacobus Zwart:
“‘Has he confessed?’
‘Well, no, not exactly. Not yet. But he will’” (once sufficient torture has been applied...) Mercurius needs to act quickly, so he is grateful to have the enthusiastic assistance of the clerk, and his own Rector, a French physician, to examine the victim’s body, once they get it through the Leiden City Gates:
“‘We’re taking him to the surgeon,’ I said.
‘It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?’ said the guard. ‘I’m not a medical man, but he looks dead to me.’”

Having established the cause of death (a large knife), Mercurius, introduced by the clerk, makes enquiries of the close neighbours of the victim and the accused, and finds that all of them relate virtually the same version of events. He learns that the victim, Franciscus Wolf “had a wonderful gift for falling out with people and blaming them” and comments “It sounds like a large number of people here had a reason to kill Wolf” including the members of his late wife’s family.

Days later, Mercurius admits to the Rector that he is still at a loss:
“‘Mercurius,’ he asked, ‘have you any idea what you’re doing?’
‘I am improvising furiously,’ I admitted”, until he finally realises that his approach may have been faulty and he needs to reconsider “motive, means and opportunity”, applying the principles of apophatic theology.

Amid a wealth of historical tidbits, Brack once again gives the reader an excellent helping of historical crime fiction. Mercurius is such a likeable character: no stuffy religious type, but self-deprecating, down to earth and possessed of a genuinely good heart. Brack gives him plenty of humorous digressions and insightful asides, as well as wise words for those that need them. He also inflicts on him cold, wet weather, a night on a floor and a hangover.

And Brack does keep testing his protagonist’s vow of chastity by throwing pretty young women in his path, often with fathers who consider him a suitable match for their daughter, unaware that he is an ordained Catholic priest. Sometimes there are even cushy country parishes attached. And Mercurius is certainly tempted: “Why did God give women dimples? I am very susceptible to dimples.” More Mercurius memoirs will definitely be welcome!
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Sapere Books (but I also purchased a copy!)

209 pages

4 stars

Master Mercurius is on a killer's trail once more.

It is 1680 in the Netherlands. A bad time to be a Catholic priest. Master Mercurius is one such, although before he took his vows, he was a protestant priest. He maintains that cover for safety's sake.

On a bitterly cold night and young woman asks Mercurius for help. Her husband has been arrested – for murder. She doesn't know why. She doesn't know where he is even being held.

Of course, Mercurius helps her by attempting to track down and bring the killer to justice.

The victim was a man named Wolf who was not well liked. Why was his neighbor arrested? What evidence does the constabulary have against Jaco?

This is a truly entertaining novel. I like Mercurius and his unusual way of investigating the incidents in which he finds himself involved. He is, of course, a product of the time in which he lives, but has some advanced notions about life, women and so on. I am looking forward to the next adventure in this series.

I want to thank NetGalley and Sapere Books for forwarding to me a copy of this very nice little book for me to read, enjoy and review.