THE LANCELOT MURDERS
J.M.C. Blair
Berkley Prime Crim
May 2009
ISBN 978-0-425-22813-5
Mystery/Historical

Arthur is still king of Britain, and Guenevere the Queen is still confined to Corfe Castle, also known as the Spider's House. With her is her lover, Sir Lancelot, and together they continue to hatch plots against Arthur and dishonor him as often as possible. Most recent intelligence from Arthur's spies within Corfe Castle say that Guenevere and Lancelot have married, a fact to be revealed at Guenevere's official birthday celebration to be attended by representatives from other kingdoms and governments throughout the known world. Guenevere and Lancelot hope to represent themselves as the true rulers of Britain and have begun secret negotiations with the infamous Emperor Justinian of the Byzantine Empire. Though both are arrested and brought to Camelot, Arthur and Merlin decide to return them to Corfe Castle and let the birthday celebrations continue so Arthur's and Britain's reputations would not be seen as weak. Also present at the birthday celebration are King Leodegrance and Queen Leonilla, Guenevere's parents. Guenevere's father had been against her bigamous marriage to Lancelot while her mother had encouraged it. While passions and plots run amok at Corfe Castle, King Leodegrance is murdered and Lancelot is found standing over his body, and Arthur has another reason to call for Lancelot's execution until Guenevere claims her lover is innocent and asks Merlin to find the real murderer...over-run with foreign ambassadors and attempts on Arthur's life and murderers afoot, it falls to Merlin to sort it all out and show the world the rule of law and justice that Arthur of Camelot has brought to Britain.

Readers of historical mysteries should enjoy THE LANCELOT MURDERS as long as they put aside any previous knowledge about the Arthurian legends and enter into the Arthurian world created by JMC Blair. Also, Blair doesn't try to recreate any supposed speech patterns from the period to give the reader the illusion of another era. Because of this, an occasional modern/contemporary word creeps in that even the forward-thinking Arthur and Merlin wouldn't have used--for example, "pushovers" that wasn't in use until the early twentieth century. If you approach THE LANCELOT MURDERS as a solid mystery with an interesting take on Camelot, then this book with its dark tone and characters is a quite fascinating and compelling read.

Reviewed by Debora Hosey
Rating:  4