When we left off with Grave Goods, highwayman Scarry vowed revenge on Adelia for offing his beloved Wolf.
It is now a couple years later – 1176 – and Henry II is looking to marry off his daughter, Joanna, to William II of Sicily. Our heroine, Adelia, has settled down in Shephold with her daughter Allie and her cadre of confidants from the previous books: her old friend Mansur as well as the newer ones, Glytha and Ulf. Sir Rowley, Bishop of Saint Albans, shows up to inform his paramour that King Henry II has ordered her to join the procession taking Joanna to Palermo. Since it is a journey of many months, Allie will be left behind in the care of Eleanor, much to Adelia's chagrin.
Along for the ride will be Excalibur, found in Grave Goods, which will be William's wedding gift. For the trek, it will be hidden in a rather plain wooden cross. Joining the usual cast is Captain O'Donnell, who will be doing the sailing, Captain Bolt, the naïve Father Adalburt, the Bishop of Winchester, and a host of pilgrims. And of course Princess Joanna will have a band of ladies in waiting and Dr. Arnulf, her personal physician.
As the band makes its way across the northern parts of France that are part of Henry's kingdom, mysterious accidents start befalling its members. At first Adelia's horse inexplicably gets its mouth around some ragwort which necessitates it being put out of its misery. The situation quickly gets more serious as we move from equine poisoning to murder. While staying at a monastery, a group goes hunting for a particularly nasty boar with the end result being that Sir Nicholas Baicer's lifeless body being dragged along by his horse. It is assumed to be an accident at first but Adelia's investigation proves otherwise.
A Murderous Procession has its pluses and minuses. On the good side, I enjoyed how Scarry is revealed to be one of the members of Adelia's group. Since he was donning a costume when they last met, she doesn't know who to look for. This adds a lot of tension and also frustrates our heroine because she is usually the one sleuthing and finding answers but here she is impotent. We learn about Scarry via italicized asides in which he has imaginary conversations with his dead lover, Wolf, and strikes a deal with someone to obtain Excalibur. I got the impression that Franklin was trying to draw parallels between Adelia and her nemesis but the book is too lightweight to really imbue them with any meaning. Scarry has lost Wolf while Adelia has left her daughter behind and, as per usual, Sir Rowley is not with her very long. Each pines for a love not present. Both deal in death, though from opposite ends of the spectrum. These comparisons are find but don't really illuminate the character of Adelia for the reader; they don't tell us anything new.
Having Sir Rowley separated from Adelia is par for the course but she's not been without her daughter since the first book in the series. Isolating her is not a problem but Franklin isn't able to make up for the lack of interaction with her kith and kin. Allie, Glytha, and Rowley are all absent which leaves Mansur but Adelia has precious little conversation with him. Adelia is basically swept up by a river of events and merely floats downstream. Again, I don't have a problem with Franklin putting Adelia in the position but she doesn't bolster the story to make up for the loss of interaction with familiar characters. Scarry has his imaginary conversations with Wolf and Adelia has her own internal dialogues which mainly deal with her feelings towards Sir Rowley. But these asides don't have enough heft to fill in the hole left by isolating Adelia.
The book ends with a cliffhanger which suggests the next volume would bring back some of the missing characters and resolve some issues. Unfortunately Ms. Franklin passed away earlier this year and I have no idea if she completed a fifth volume in the series or not. It would be a shame to end the adventures of Adelia Aguilar on this disappointing note but, even if there is no manuscript in the wings, the Mistress of the Art of Death novels have been a blatantly fun read full of charming characters and engaging mysteries.
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