title: The Novice's Tale (Oxford Medieval Mysteries) (Volume 2)
author:  Ann Swinfen 
description: Ann Swinfen is the author of the highly acclaimed series, The Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez. Set in the late sixteenth century, it features a young Marrano physician recruited as a code-breaker and spy in Walsinghams secret service. In order, the books are: The Secret World of Christoval Alvarez, The Enterprise of England, The Portuguese Affair, Bartholomew Fair, Suffer the Little Children, Voyage to Muscovy and The Plays the Thing. Her Fenland Series takes place in East Anglia during the seventeenth century. In the first book, Flood, both men and women fight desperately to save their land from greedy and unscrupulous speculators. The second, Betrayal, continues the story of the dangerous search for legal redress and security for the embattled villagers, at a time when few could be trusted. Her latest series, Oxford Medieval Mysteries, is set in the fourteenth century and features bookseller Nicholas Elyot, a young widower with two small children, and his university friend Jordain Brinkylsworth, who are faced with crime in the troubled world following the Black Death. The first book in the series is The Booksellers Tale, the second is The Novices Tale. She has also written two standalone novels. The Testament of Mariam, set in the first century, recounts, from an unusual perspective, one of the most famous and yet ambiguous stories in human history, while exploring life under a foreign occupying force, in lands still torn by conflict to this day. This Rough Ocean is based on the real-life experiences of the Swinfen family during the 1640s, at the time of the English Civil War, when John Swynfen was imprisoned for opposing the killing of the king, and his wife Anne had to fight for the survival of her children and dependents. She now lives on the northeast coast of Scotland, with her husband, formerly vice-principal of the University of Dundee, and a rescue cat called Maxi. www.annswinfen.com
zlib_text: Contents
  
  About the Book
  
  About the Author
  
  Title Page
  
  Dedication
  
  Acknowledgements
  
  1830
  
  > Chapter One: _The Bonnet_
  
  > Chapter Two: _The Harvest_
  
  > Chapter Three: _Laudanum and Smelling Salts_
  
  > Chapter Four: _The Watch_
  
  1833
  
  > Chapter Five: _A Silver Sixpence_
  
  1837
  
  > Chapter Six: _Smoking out the Bees_
  
  > Chapter Seven: _Hop Picking_
  
  > Chapter Eight: _Carrying the Anvil_
  
  > Chapter Nine: _Shooting at the Stars_
  
  > Chapter Ten: _Behold a White Horse_
  
  > Chapter Eleven: _The Battle of Bossenden_
  
  > Chapter Twelve: _The Red Lion_
  
  > Chapter Thirteen: _The Assizes_
  
  > Chapter Fourteen: _Innocence and Temperance_
  
  > Chapter Fifteen: _The Littlest Feet_
  
  > Chapter Sixteen: _This Little Piggy_
  
  1841
  
  > Chapter Seventeen: _The Messenger_
  
  > Chapter Eighteen: _Least Said, Soonest Mended_
  
  > Chapter Nineteen: _Catch him Crow, Carry him Kite_
  
  Read on for an extract from _Half a Heart_
  
  Copyright
  
  About the Book
  
   **East Kent, 1830**
  
  Catherine Rook takes her peaceful life for granted