A Fall of Shadows: A Bess Ellyott Mystery

The stabbing murder of Bartholomew Reade, a handsome player in a traveling theatrical troupe, propels Herriman’s superior second Elizabethan mystery (after 2018’s Searcher of the Dead). Ellyn Merrick, a young woman from a prosperous family in the English village of Wiltshire, who collapses on herbalist Bess Ellyott’s doorstep, is one of several suspects, but Bess, certain that Ellyn is innocent, uses her intelligence and resourcefulness to attempt to unmask Reade’s true killer, sometimes in the company of the village constable, who struggles with his feelings for her, veering between attraction and disapproval. What deepens the story is dangerous superstition, since Reade’s body was discovered on a druids’ mound, and an old woman feared to be a malevolent witch lives nearby. Bess, an independent woman with healing powers, draws the villagers’ suspicion as well. In its skillful storytelling—planting clues, introducing multiple suspects, executing sharp twists, and generating a sense of true menace—this novel takes its place as a standout historical mystery. Agent: Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary. (Apr.)