BOOKS
The Sacred Stone
My newest publication is a joint Medieval Murderers novel, The Sacred Stone, written together with the medieval crime writers Bernard Knight, Ian Morson, Susanna Gregory and Philip Gooden. My part of the novel is set in 1241 in Norwich, among a group of kabbalists. The book was published in July 2010 by Simon & Schuster, in a simultaneous hardback and trade paperback release.
Read more about The Sacred Stone
The Owl Killers
Karen Maitland introduces her new medieval mystery:
My love of all things Medieval began with frequent 'escape' trips to the medieval cities of Belgium following in the footsteps of my hero, Stephen Fry. It was in Bruges that I first came across beguinages, the Cities of Women which flourished right across Europe in the Middle Ages. My curiosity was aroused when the city guide said the beguines were nuns, whilst the cathedral guide, with a disapproving snort, told me beguinages were brothels. I knew at once that I had found an intriguing story.
I then discovered that attempts were made to set up beguinages in Britain. So why did the beguinages disappear within a few years of being founded in England, when everywhere else they survived for centuries?
For my novel The Owl Killers, I combined this beguinage mystery with another strange tale, the legend of the Owlman. The Owlman was an ancient medieval monster, but a beast which some people in Cornwall claim to have seen as recently as 1995. Does the medieval monster live on?
"Maitland's previous medieval thriller. Company of Liars, set about twenty years later than this, was a brilliant and original take on Chaucer's pilgrims. The Owl Killers is even better. Her next reportedly takes place during the reign of King John and I am really looking forward to stepping ever further back in time in Maitland's company."
Yvonne Klein, Reviewing the Evidence
I celebrated the US publication of The Owl Killers by guest-blogging at Blood on the Page, the Suspense Book Club of publishers Random House; you can still find my posts there, though you'll have use the search box to find me! According to one funny piece of news that has come my way, the book may be finding some influential readers...
The Owl Killers received an Honorable Mention from the ALA (American Library Association in the Historical Fiction category of their 2010 Reading List. It was nominated for a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award.
Future Books
The primary book I'm currently working on is called The Gallows' Curse, which will be published by Penguin. It's set in the reign of King John, when the whole of England was under sentence of excommunication (among other issues, King John wouldn't accept the Pope's choice of Archbishop). Can you imagine the chaos - all the churches closed, King John in retaliation arresting every priest who hadn't fled and the people terrified of dying in sin without the last rites? No burials were permitted on consecrated land, no marriages were conducted, no babies baptized. But I don't want to reveal much more, except to say the plot involves people-trafficking, murder and, oh yes... a very feisty dwarf and a eunuch with a hunger for revenge.
And after that, there's The Falcons of Ice and Fire...
Company of Liars
Midsummer's Day, 1348
On this day of ill omen, plague makes its entrance. In a world ruled by faith and fear, nine desperate strangers, brought together by chance, attempt to outrun the certain death that is spreading inexorably toward them.
Each member of this motley company has a story to tell. From Camelot, the relic-seller who will become the group's leader, to Cygnus, the one-armed storyteller... from the strange, silent child called Narigorm to a painter and his pregnant wife, each has a secret. None is what they seem. And one among them conceals the darkest secret of all, propelling these liars to a destiny they never saw coming.
Macavity nomination
Company of Liars was shortlisted in the US for a Sue Feder Memorial Award for best historical mystery of 2008, one of the Macavity Awards.
Now also available in paperback, and in an unabridged audio edition.
"Irresistible" - (Sunday Telegraph) "Engrossing" - (Daily Mail) "A page-turner" - (Daily Express)
