Murder and Other Confusions by Kathy Lynn Emerson

Susannah, Lady Appleton, is a gentlewoman and herbalist, who is also a detective. When someone dies, or someone is accused of killing someone else, she uses her mind and her vast knowledge of herbs to find the actual culprit and bring him (or her) to justice. But as these eleven short stories show, she isn't the only one with detection in her blood- her friends and servants also have the same clarity of mind to find killers as well.

In "Body in the Dovecote", Susannah finds six year old Katherine Dudley upset at the death of a dove in the dovecote. She fed it a seed she found, and now it is dead. Susannah attempts to console the girl, but the body of a man is also found, and now Susannah must determine who or what killed him, and prevent another poisoning.

In "Much Ado About Murder", Susannah is visited by Lord Benedick and his lady, Beatrice, and with their help... or is it hindrance? must discover who killed the wanderer found dead in one of her herb sheds.

"The Rubiyat of Nicholas Baldwin" tells of Nick's adventure in Persia, where he was required to find the murderer of a servant in the house of the Emir and recite a poem exposing the murderer- all in the space of a few days!

"Lady Appleton and the London Man" has Nicholas Baldwin coming to Lady Appleton to accuse her servant Jennet of theft. He is missing a small statuette given to him by the Emir he solved the murder for, and he suspects her of theft, given that she has been spotted in his house when she shouldn't be. But can Susannah find the real thief in time to save Jennet's life?

"Lady Appleton and the Cautionary Herbal" has Susannah being sent a copy of her own book, a Cautionary Herbal, with one of the pages torn out. But who sent it, and why? And can she save the woman whose husband has threatened to poison her?

"The Riddle of the Woolsack" has Jennet and her husband Mark Jaffrey sent to take over the Inn now owned by a notorious gossip. It belonged to the woman's daughter and her husband, and now both are dead- the woman at the hand of her husband, and then him at his own. The gossip wants to know who really killed her daughter and her daughter's man. But can Jennet and Mark discover the truth without Lady Susannah's help?

"Lady Applegate and the Cripplegate Chrisolms" has Susannah and Nicholas finding the dead husband of a woman in her lands. But along the way, he finds an even greater mystery- a woman who regularly has children, only for them to die. Is she murdering them, or simply the victim of unfortunate circumstances too many times to be believed? Can Susannah find the real culprit behind the deaths of so many children?

"Lady Appleton and the Bristol Crystals" has her kidnapped on the way to visiting an old flame, now married. The woman who kidnapped Susannah wants to hurt her to hurt Susannah's old flame. But can Nick Baldwin find Susannah and rescue her before she is hurt? Or will she find a way to escape and find help on her own?

"Encore for a Neck Verse" has Susannah looking into a long-ago death where the villain met his end. Or did he? When someone who looks very like the victim of a murder shows up alive, Susannah must find out if there was actually a murder in the first place!

"Confusions Most Monstrous" has a near-death and disappearance at a wedding. The Bride had loved someone else, and he'd died, so now she was being forced to marry someone else- a friend, but only a friend. But when the groom is nearly killed, and the Bride disappears, leaving behind her hair in the stable, has she been killed, or is she the near-murderer? Can Susannah discover the truth in this convoluted trail?

and, finally, "Death by Devil's Turnip" has Susannah calling on all her herb knowledge to catch a murderer who kills with the plant Bryony- also known as the Devil's Turnip. But who is killing woman with the plant on Edmund Brudenell's land, and can Susannah prevent any more deaths from the plant- and catch the killer?

I liked these short little stories, for both the crimes (not all are murder, just most of them) and the little historical details woven into the stories. From the medieval-known properties of plants to such things as what Persian cats looked like back then and what Bawdy courts adjudicated or what the neck verse was, each adds a real historical cast to the stories, and soupçon of learning.

None of the stories are too weird or out there, just normal human emotions and suspicions that lead to murder, lust or death. Each tale is rooted in understandable, if regrettable human emotions and feelings. None of them needed to lead to murder, but failings in the people end up taking over and before you know it, someone is dead or killing someone else for thing that need not have been that way- nor are all the victims or near-victims blameless.

Anyone who enjoys mystery tales from the past will find a lot to like here, as Kathy Lynn Emerson manages to inform as she entertains with the stories of murder and detection. There are also Shakespearian characters, realistic animals and people, and wonderfully evocative writing. Recommended.