Literature / Dame Frevisse

A series of seventeen novels written by Margaret Frazer. They are written in meticulously-researched Historical Fiction fashion; with details of each social class' bread and butter as well as the interclass tensions abounding.

Benedictine nun Dame Frevisse living in St. Frideswide's convent during the Wars of the Roses. She is witness to and must solve murder mysteries that occur in her small English village (which partially belongs to the Real Life figure of Lord Lovell).

The first six novels —from The Novice's Tale (1992) to The Murderer's Tale (1996)— were written by Gail Lynn Brown and Mary Monica Pulver Kuhfeld. From the seventh onward, only the former would keep authoring books and assimilate the shared pen name of Margaret Frazer.

The Prioress' Tale was nominated for an Edgar Award.

Novels

1. The Novice's Tale (1992)
2. The Servant's Tale (1993)
3. The Outlaw's Tale (1994)
4. The Bishop's Tale (1994)
5. The Boy's Tale (1995)
6. The Murderer's Tale (1996)
7. The Prioress' Tale (1997)
8. The Maiden's Tale (1998)
9. The Reeve's Tale (1999)
10. The Squire's Tale (2000)
11. The Clerk's Tale (2002)
12. The Bastard's Tale (2003)
13. The Hunter's Tale (2004)
14. The Widow's Tale (2005)
15. The Sempster's Tale (2006)
16. The Traitor's Tale (2007)
17. The Apostate's Tale (2008)

Not to be confused with The Squire's Tales.

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Tropes:

In general

• The Joy of X: All the books have "The X's Tale" titles and are set in the 15th century, just a generation or two after Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
• Literary Allusion Title: All of the novels have their titles fashioned like the fragments of The Canterbury Tales—the formula is the + occupation/title's + tale. Four of the novels receive their titles directly from the fragments: The Prioress' Tale, The Reeve's Tale, The Squire's Tale, and The Clerk's Tale. Maybe even the first book, The Novice's Tale, seeing as The Canterbury Tales has two fragments told by nuns.

The Novice's Tale

• Prodigal Family: Sister Thomasine's aunt Ermintrude, who shows up at the convent's guest hall periodically with her staff and her objectionable pets (e.g. monkeys), and keeps offering to take the shy, devout Thomasine out of there and find her a vigorous husband.

The Reeve's Tale

• Suspiciously Specific Denial: A teenage boy is explaining to the village reeve how he happened to be in a position to see a plot-critical event (note that the land belongs to a noble, and commoners aren't allowed to hunt there):
  Dickon: There's a place up on the wood edge. It ridges out some and you can see...
  Simon: I know the place. Every boy knows it. It's the best place along the wood shore for not catching rabbits. My grandfather used to not snare rabbits up there, too. And my father and me. None of us ever used to set snares there when we were your age, nor eat the rabbits we never caught either.

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