The Apostate's Tale by Margaret Frazer

Just before Easter, the Nunnery of St. Frideswede's is amazed to see Sister Cecely return to them. Cecely had been a nun, but run off with a man because she could no longer stand the other nuns and wanted the excitement and contentment of living her life the way she chose. But now the man she loved has died and left her with a son, Edward, called Neddie.

Cecely says that she has nowhere else to go, but that won't keep her from being punished for breaking her vows. What to do with her? None of the nuns really want her back with them, and a punishment of her being returned to the nunnery would be more of a punishment for them, rather than Cecely. Her son will be kept by the nuns until her fate is decided.

Soon trouble comes chasing Cecely in the form of her in-laws, who claim she stole valuable deeds from their family before she ran off with her son. Another merchant, staying in the nunnery's guest house, meets with Cecely, but she cannot run off with him because she is too closely kept. When her relations arrive, Cecely claims that they attempted to take her son from her, while they claim she stole the boy and that she was a liar and not really married to the father of her child, because of her vows to the nunnery.

But that isn't all that troubles the nunnery, for Domina Elizabeth, their abbess, has not been well and seems distracted of late. When her brother, the Bishop, arrives, she is heard crying before him, and her distraction only grows worse. What could be causing the Abbess such distress?

There is also a young woman come to the Abbey, whose mother says she is thinking of her daughter becoming a Nun, but the daughter claims that her mother only took her to the abbey to dissuade her from becoming a nun. But the daughter wants it more than anything, is easily capable of defying her mother to get what she wants.

But when two men in the abbey's guesthouse sicken, one after the other, each related to Cecely's case, can Frevisse find the culprit who seems to be poisoning them with items out of the abbey's own stores? And what of the supposedly stolen deeds? can they be found before the claimants in the case come to blows?

What I really like about Margaret Frazer is her ability to make you feel like you really are in the place you are describing, in this case, a Benedictine Nunnery. You also get to see it from the point of view of Cecely, who sees the nunnery of St. Frideswede's as a prison, and from the point of view of Sister Frevisse, who sees it as a sanctuary. By reading the book, you get to see it as both at the same time.

We get to see how Sister Cecely sees the other nuns at the abbey, and especially Sister Frevisse, and it is not a flattering picture. But these are all incidental to the story, which is first rate. The ending is something of a shock, but also a delight, and something which takes the series in an unexpected, new direction.

An excellent book with a well-plotted mystery.