Review of Covenant with Hell by Priscilla Royal

Priscilla Royal’s latest mystery finds Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas on a pilgrimage to Walsingham to mend Eleanor’s troubled soul. That Thomas’s soul is also in need of healing will go without saying for those familiar with this series. But instead of a salve for their souls, they find murder and dangers that could shake the whole kingdom.

I’m a sucker for a good story set in the past. Almost any clever plot with some lively characters can glue me to a page. But when a writer also incorporates thoughtful ideas into a beguiling tale, then I’m in love. Priscilla Royal is one of those rare finds. Under the guise of medieval mysteries, in her various books she’s taken on anti-Semitism, mob mentalities, the psychological effects of war, sexual identity and other themes.

In Covenant with Hell, Royal takes on the notion of self-righteous religiosity that’s used to cover personal failings and sins. She also deals with a more subtle theme that she’s explored before—how to live true to oneself when who you are is rejected by your world. These two ideas work superbly in tandem. “Good” characters and “shady” ones are moral shape shifters in this book—one minute you think you’ve got someone categorized and then, well, you’re wrong and in the process you’ve learned more about human beings that you would have thought from such an enjoyable read. As I read, I gradually recognized these shifts but that process was a largely unconscious one because Royal’s story telling and intriguing characters held me tightly involved. Through the course of the book I intuited a level of human understanding about identity and happiness and moral compasses that I’d be hard put to articulate fully. I simply know that I’m the richer for having gained it.

I’ll add a bit of teaser on this theme. In the first chapter we meet a mysterious character and hear his thoughts. Decide what role—hero or villain—you would ascribe to a character with these thoughts: “Only in obscurity could he be honest, even if that truth was an evil thing. Only in the velvet-embrace of darkness could he find comfort and peace.”

I suspect that Royal’s series has gained a couple new continuing characters from this book, but I doubt you will guess who they are until the end. Subtlety and sophistication of character development continue to be Royal’s stock-in-trade. I did find a couple disconnects where plot pieces got dropped or appeared unexplained, but I doubt most readers will be bothered by these editing mishaps. Do pick up a copy of Covenant with Evil or start her series at the beginning if she’s new to you.