I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review of it.
I don’t often read mystery, but when I do, I enjoy the thrill of it.
Mystery novels can have an unsatisfying end, which ruins the entirety of the book, and mystery novels can have characters jump to some wild conclusions for the sake of wrapping up all the loose ends.
It is a tough line to walk, making the character learn enough to solve all the clues, but when done well it makes the story much better.
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Trust no one…
1485, Yorkshire, England
King Richard III has held the English throne for two years. But the country is rife with rumours about the fate of his nephews, the two princes imprisoned in the Tower of London, and there is a continual threat of rebellion by Henry Tudor.
King Richard’s heir, John de la Pole, presides over the stronghold of Sandal Castle. When a suspicious death occurs in his household, he instructs Sir Giles Beeston, the newly appointed judge, to the Manor Court to investigate.
But before Sir Giles can get to the bottom of the murder, more grisly deaths occur.
Are the deaths connected? Is there a plot against the King?
And can Sir Giles unmask the killer before he too falls victim to the killer…?
Title: The Fool’s Folly
Author: Keith Moray
Rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Page Count: 233
A Story Not of Our Time
Stories set in our world and time are often of little interest to me. I can enjoy them, if the story is interesting enough, but I much prefer travelling to a time or place where I couldn’t possibly have lived.
The medieval period is probably my favourite time period, with the Victorian Era a close second.
A medieval mystery is an interesting combination, because often we associate mysteries with evidence, DNA samples, camera footage, etc. That isn’t possible when your greatest scientific advancement is a siege engine.
When all those things are missing, logic and good old detective work takes hold.
The Fool’s Folly captures those two features well. Moray creates great characters that show their intelligence from the beginning, and the book explores it along the way. Their conclusions aren’t drawn out of nowhere, they make sense and you can follow them.
Politics at Play
A major issue that can easily arise when a book is set in medieval England is the politics. People could spend their whole life studying medieval England. The lord and ladies, the wars, the political game of chess.
It can be exhausting, and easily become hard to follow.
The Fool’s Folly does suffer from this at times. It never becomes impossible to follow, but there are moments it becomes tough to understand everyone’s relationship to the story.
Other than those few moments, the politics of the book aren’t a major plot line. The characters that are introduced are very few, and their positions in the world are easy to understand.
Left Unsatisfied
I wasn’t a fan of the way this story ended, but to be honest I can’t explain why.
I enjoyed the characters well enough, the logic to come to the realization of who the killer was, was sound and made sense. The final scenes of the book weren’t out of place.
Thinking on it, I think I was left unsatisfied with who the killer ended up being. I enjoyed their justification, I just didn’t like how they left the people’s lives they were involved with.
Final Thoughts
The Fool’s Folly is a short read, and if you enjoy mysteries, then you should pick it up.
A short book like this won’t take much time to get through, but you’ll enjoy trying to solve the murder for yourself.
The politics at play won’t disrupt the story for too long, but be aware that they can have an effect on your understanding.
