Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin

Grave Goods is the third in Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series featuring Adelia Aguilar who is the 12th century's CSI group unto herself. As with the
previous books in the series, Adelia finds herself bidden by King Henry II to undertake a little investigation. This time around she is sent to Glastonbury to prove whether or not remains found there belong to King Arthur and Guinevere. A more difficult task than her previous assignments for it is impossible to determine whether the sets of bones belonged to the legendary couple but there is no murder involved and so she is theoretically less imperiled by her investigation. However this turns out not to be the case.

The Glastonbury abbey had recently suffered a fire and it is up to Sir Rowley, who is now the Bishop of St. Albans and the father of Adelia's child, to investigate. To add Pelion upon Ossa, Emma, a girl from the previous book in the series, and her entourage have gone missing. Emma's former mother-in-law is Adelia's prime suspect. What begins as a relatively simple bit of forensics ends up being much more complicated.

I have to say that I really enjoyed Grave Goods and it's the best of the series so far. Franklin has a habit of withholding enough information from the reader to keep him or her from deducing the identity of the bad guy on their own. The same generally follows here but what I really like was how she filled the story with a large cast of characters and slowly revealed how they were intertwined and what roles they played in events. At the abbey you have the abbot and various monks; along the way we meet a few members of a frankpledge and a couple none-too-pleasant outlaws; plus there's Godwyn, the innkeeper who faints at first sight of Adelia and his wife Hilda. In their service is a deaf girl, Millie. Lastly there's the bard Rhys whose songs alternately amuse and annoy Adelia and company.

Franklin did a good job of juggling all the characters and keeping the reader guessing as to everyone's motivations.

Another thing I liked about the book was how Adelia's feelings towards and relationship with Rowley were put on the back burner. Her ambivalence is here but it's muted as Rowley is absent for most of the book. I'm ambivalent about their relationship because it exists only in fits and starts. It's the 12th century so there isn't really such a thing as a long-distance relationship. You can't call e-mail, text your love. And so the feelings that Adelia and Rowley share can only blossom when they're together which isn't often here. Their love story is fine by me but it advances at a snail's pace with the most common element being Adelia hating Rowley on the one hand and loving him on the other. The whole thing never gets too deep, however wide it may be.

While I knew from the get-go not to expect Franklin's books to be fraught with big ideas like Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, I thought she sprinkled some good food for thought in Grave Goods. The primary idea tossed around is that of the power of story. For Henry, having Adelia confirm the bones belong to Arthur and Guinevere strikes a blow against the Celtic rebels in Wales he's fighting as their morale would surely suffer if they knew that the Arthur would not be coming to rescue them. The abbey has a stake in their identity as well. If the bones really did belong to the legendary figures, that means the church has relics on their hands and people will pay to see them. And considering the loss incurred by the fire, some extra money would be quite nice.

Grave Goods isn't a treatise on symbolism or the role of stories in our lives but I give Franklin credit for giving them more than a passing mention. What Arthur and his legend mean is brought up a few times and by various characters of differing social statuses. Arthur means different things to different people.

The book ends on a rather forboding note which said to me that revenge or an attempt at it will be at the heart of the latest volume in the series, A Murderous Procession.