Publisher's Weekly Review
In Clare's eerie ninth Aelf Fen medieval mystery (after 2018's The Rufus Spy), English healer Lassair, drained and depressed by recent personal losses, agrees to accompany her mentor, Gurdyman, on a sudden journey from Cambridge to faraway Spain, even though the elderly healer and magician won't tell her why they're going. Soon it becomes clear that the wise and formidable Gurdyman is deeply afraid, which is no surprise since the impetus of the journey was his finding a dead man in his doorway with a pearl in his hands. The tension builds as a malevolent presence haunts the pair's arduous journey to the City of Pearl. Alarmed by Lassair's departure, the Cambridge lawman Jack Chevestrier tries to pick up her trail, which also increases the stakes and deepens the emotional narrative, since Lassair and the burly Jack have unfinished business. The lack of a murder case to solve may disappoint some, but those who enjoy mystical thrillers set in medieval Europe will be well rewarded. (Dec.)
Kirkus Review
A woman with magical powers starts a long and arduous journey not knowing what is to come.The wizard Gurdyman, with whom Lassair has been living and studying in Cambridge in 1093, tells her that they must travel to Spain and sends her to her fenland home to pack her belongings, including the shining stone that reveals visions. Lassair wonders whether the trip is an effort to cheer her up after she's lost the two loves of her life, Rollo to death and lawman Jack Chevestrier to stubbornness (The Rufus Spy, 2018). Before she and Gurdyman board the first of several ships that will take them to Spain, she visits her parents and her grandfather Thorfinn, from whom she's inherited some of her powers and the shining stone. Gurdyman says that he wants to visit his own parents' graves in Galicia, but Lassair suspects that he has other reasons for the trip. The owners of the inn that was once his parents' greet the visitors with caution and even dislike, evoking memories of Gurdyman's early brilliance and his determination to travel far to learn more. Using money Rollo left her, Lassair, noting Gurdyman's failing health, buys a pony and cart for transport. After almost dying from poisoned water, both are rescued and taken to the City of Pearl, a haven for people of every religion. Gurdyman agrees to send Lassair to a magnificent cave in a high mountain region, where she's tutored by Luliwa in the magical arts. Back in England, a man is found dead outside Gurdyman's house,, a pearl clutched in his hand. Jack teams up with Lassair's uncle Hrype to hunt down the wraithlike person who searched the house. Afraid for Lassair's life, the pair engage Thorfinn and his ship to follow her. Much will be revealed but even more left for the next chapter in Lassair's life.A host of minor mysteries enliven this magical tour of mystical lands. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Clare produces another winner in her Aelf Fen series, set in eleventh-century Britain and featuring village-healer Lassair. When Lassair's mentor, Gurdyman, announces that he has an idea for a new venture, she assumes he means a new experiment to further increase her understanding of the mystical world of healing. But Gurdyman has something entirely different in mind a long sea voyage followed by a dangerous and challenging land journey to the mysterious City of Pearl. Along the way, Gurdyman means to visit the village where his parents died and right a long-ago wrong that has weighed on his mind for decades. But it is the City of Pearl a rich and beautiful city where Jews, Christians, and Muslims live in harmony where Lassair will learn the true purpose of the long and dangerous expedition that she and Gurdyman have embarked on. Less a historical mystery and more a genre-blender than the other titles in the series, this magical adventure story, full of joy, danger, and sadness, will draw both Clare's crime-fiction fans as well as fantasy readers.--Emily Melton Copyright 2019 Booklist
