Dear reader, dear finder - thank you for coming here to see where this book has been so far. I hope you enjoy it. Do feel free to leave a journal entry below saying where you found this, what you thought of it, and what you intend to do with it.

From the Marie Curie charity shop, Guildford

This book is made of weapons-grade WTF. After I'd realised that it wasn't in fact a historical romance but a thriller with a side of historical romance I boggled slightly less, but trust me, I really didn't need a rape scene in olde Englisshe followed swiftly by a large chunk lifted from Julian of Norwich. This all makes sense later in the book, but doesn't stop me being mentally scarred in the mean time. So yes; the first half is nicked from Julian (who deserves far, far better); the second from The Collector. And I am pretty sure that Anya Seton does the same thing far, far better in Green Darkness.

It was quite interesting to read this as a Surrey resident, half knowing my way around Shere. I think, though, that this suffered from the same problem that afflicts many amateur authors who set their books in places they know well: throwing place names here, there and everywhere, without considering that the reader may not have such an extensive mental map.

Sending to grovalskii as part of the Acts of Kindness sweepstake. Enjoy!

Just received the book in the mail. Thank you so much!

2 years later and I finally get around to reading this! I'm about 50 pages into the book and really am enjoying it. Will make another entry when I'm done.

This is not what I expected - but still a great book! Somehow I thought there would be more historical fiction. It was quite gripping, what a queer way of making a thriller out of a historical story.

sending this book to a non-bookcrossing friend of Chremajora's (hopefully she still lives at the address). Usually this friend returns the book to Chremajora once she is done reading them.

Dear grovalskii, thank you for your generous kindness in helping to keep Marita in reading material! She did indeed pass this book on for me to make an entry on her behalf, and now it is travelling further to linguistkris in Solingen.

Dear linguistkris, I think this is a book you might enjoy. Happy reading!

Wow, these are some intriguingly diverse journal entries! Looks like this book has to be read to be believed. ;)
elstaplador, I love how you've registered this book using that gorgous stamp instead of a label.
Thank you for thinking of me, Chremajora!

Weapons-grade WTF indeed, elstaplador! I keep wondering why I even finished this book, but in the end I must admit I really needed to know, so it can't have been all bad, I suppose.

I picked this to read for the Samhain Exchange because it was one of the few "mediaeval" things that had already emerged from my boxes after moving and that I could readily locate. So I guess the fact that I "needed" this book and had already earmarked it for a purpose really helped me along (although I must admit now that I am kind of doubting whether I can inflict it upon another person ;)).
It's funny, but right before I started this I had read the Natascha Kampusch biography and Room, so I had already spent some time trying to wrap my mind around what imprisonment and rape might do to a person (and what could drive somebody to do that to somebody else), but when it turned out that this was also the central topic of this book, I felt a bit stalked. Didn't I just pick up an ordinary historical mystery? Apparently not.
What the Anchoress adds to the topic is the element of religion, and a direct view into the mind of the perpetrator. Other than that, I am afraid it doesn't say or do anything that the other two books did (to me at least) a lot better.
My most obvious problem with this book is its style: The writing is just atrocious. I presume the "mediaeval" parts written by Duval are actually meant to be bad, simply because he suffers from delusions of grandeur and fancies himself a much better writer than he is, but that makes his dialogues no less dreadful to read. I mean: "Rest I need after gleanin', not more rushin' hither and thither", seriously?
Unfortunately, the rest of the book didn't go down much easier. Moorcraft may have spared me more of the mock-Chaucer, but all the characters and their actions are just so horribly over-explained. That made the reading tedious at best, but for some parts the results seemed almost cynical. Never have I seen a more unbelievable "heroine" than when Marda realises her need for human company and subsequently plans her strategy for Christmas. Female sexuality mansplained? Please, no!
I am especially mad about the epilogue, I think, which made me want to have a cold bath in copies of Hitchens and Dawkins.

Happy Samhain! :D
I do hope you enjoy this book more than I did. If you don't, do let me know and I'll send you another spooky book -- I just couldn't find another one with a nice medieval connection right now.

I have just received this book from sweet Linguistkris, my secret sender at the Samhain Medieval Echange of October 2016!
Not only the story refers to medieval times, but also the fonts used inside and out on the book cover are from a strange -medieval?!- font family!
A most appropriate book (indeed!!!) accompanied by a most beautiful wooden box with a Samhain pattern that I have adored, and some nice staff that spread Halloween joy!
I am impatient to start reading!