The Yeoman's Tale

May 1, 2022
The second in a series, after The Knight's Tale (2021), loosely based on The Canterbury Tales. As Geoffrey Chaucer, Court Poet and Comptroller of Woollens, leaves on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, he little knows that his plans will be ruined by a peasant uprising. Chaucer's traveling companions, a mixed bag of historical and fabricated eccentrics, range from his fellow poet John Gower to a prioress, Madame Eglantyne, and her lapdog. Their leader and organizer, Harry Baillie, owner of the Tabard Inn, gets them only a few days into their trip before they run into the thousands of peasants led by Wat Tyler and the priest John Ball, who aim to make England a classless society. Stripped of all but their horses, they're forced to return to London, where the powers that be ignore Chaucer's warnings. Under the leadership of yeoman Tom Hardesty, the pilgrims make the Tabard Inn into a defensible fortress. Hardesty meanwhile discovers the body of a woman in the Thames with her throat cut and brings it to the inn, where the ever curious Chaucer can't resist investigating. Even after a second murder, his sleuthing must play second fiddle to surviving when the peasants attack and King Richard's advisers dither over what to do. A grim but often amusing historical mystery leaving plenty of tales yet to tell.

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May 9, 2022
The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 provides the backdrop for Trow’s solid sequel to 2021’s The Knight’s Tale. While an unknown woman is murdered by Thames River, elsewhere in London, Geoffrey Chaucer, “Court Poet and Comptroller of Woolens,” joins his fellow pilgrims on a planned journey to Canterbury. The entertainingly grumbling group, which includes a yeoman, is led by the energetic if penny-pinching owner of the Tabard Inn. The pilgrims haven’t progressed too far when they run into an army of rebels and hurry back to warn London authorities. As some members of the group fortify the Tabard, the yeoman discovers the dead woman floating in the Thames with her throat cut. It turns out she was the wife of one of the pilgrims. Chaucer investigates her death as well as the subsequent throat-slicing of another pilgrim, all while trying to keep from becoming too important to a petulant Richard II and England’s leaders as they confront Wat Tyler and the rebels. Touches of humor enhance this well-paced mystery as a string of clever clues leads to the killer’s unveiling. Fans of medieval historicals will be satisfied.

June 30, 2022
Trow's newest offering is set in fourteenth-century London, with boy king Richard II on the throne and London a bustling metropolis. Court poet and civil servant Geoffrey Chaucer is setting off on his annual pilgrimage to Canterbury, but he and the other pilgrims are barely out of London when they're confronted by an angry mob of peasants headed for the city to confront those they believe responsible for their poverty. After taking the pilgrims' valuables, the mob warns the group to return to London. Reaching the city, Chaucer and his fellow pilgrims (along with what seems like half of London) take refuge in an inn, adding stout fortifications to keep the peasants out. Then two brutal murders take place, and Chaucer feels duty bound to find the killer. Trow bases his book on the actual 1381 Peasants' Revolt, and it's a vibrant, entertaining story that brings to life the difficult living conditions of the time. While little is known about Chaucer's life--other than his authorship of The Canterbury Tales--Trow creates in his hero/sleuth a larger-than-life character, spicing the stew with acerbic wit, suspense, and a gripping plot.

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