As Adelia’s investigation takes her along Cambridge’s shadowy river paths, and behind the closed doors of its churches and nunneries, the hunt intensifies and the killer prepares to strike again.

As she examines the victims and retraces their last steps, she must conceal her true identity in order to avoid accusations of witchcraft. In a backward and superstitious country like England, Adelia faces danger at every turn. But her name is Adelia the king has been sent a “mistress of the art of death.” The Italian doctor chosen for the task is a young prodigy from the University of Salerno, an expert in the science of anatomy and the art of detection. Hoping scientific investigation will help catch the true killer, King Henry II calls on his cousin, the King of Sicily–whose subjects include the best medical experts in Europe–and asks for his finest “master of the art of death,” the earliest form of medical examiner. As Adelias investigation takes her behind the closed doors of the countrys churches, the killer prepares to strike again. The Catholic townsfolk blame their Jewish neighbors, so to save them from the rioting mob, the Cambridge Jews are placed under the protection of the king. In medieval Cambridge, England, Adelia, a female forensics expert, is summoned by King Henry II to investigate a series of gruesome murders that has wrongly implicated the Jewish population, yielding even more tragic results. In medieval Cambridge, four children have been murdered. and one extraordinary woman who can reveal the secrets of the dead. And, fatally, the attention of a murderer who is prepared to kill again.Four savage murders.

Adelia's investigation takes her deep into Cambridge, its castle and convents and in a medieval city teeming with life, Adelia makes friends and even finds romance. What's more, her speciality is the study of corpses she is, in fact, a mistress of the art of death, a skill that must be concealed in case she's accused of witchcraft. There are few female doctors in twelth century Europe, but Adelia is one of them, having qualified at the great School of Medicine in Salerno. A renowned investigator, Simon of Naples, is recruited and he arrives in town from the continent accompanied by an Arab and a young woman, Adelia Aguilar. The Jews provide a large part of his revenue and therefore the real killer must be found, and quickly. The Jews, made scapegoats by the all-powerful Christian clergy, have been forced to retreat into the castle to avoid slaughter by angry townspeople. In Cambridge, a child has been hideously murdered and other children have disappeared.

Mistress of the art of death