The Difficult Saint: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery (43 page)

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Authors: Sharan Newman

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By Sharan Newman from Tom Doherty Associates

CATHERINE LEVENDEUR MYSTERIES

Death Comes as Epiphany
The Devil’s Door
The Wandering Arm
Strong as Death
Cursed in the Blood
The Difficult Saint

GUINEVERE

Guinevere
The Chessboard Queen
Guinevere Evermore

Afterword

Catherine, Edgar, Solomon and their families are all imaginary characters. However, the time they lived in and the events that affected them are real. The second crusade was led by Louis VII, who left France in May of 1147. There are a number of chronicles of the events of this expedition. By the way, they weren’t called crusades at the time. The term was generally
pilgrimage
.

The preaching of the monk, Radulf, and the subsequent attacks on the Jews are also well substantiated in both Christian and Jewish sources. I invented a family for Simon of Trier, but the mode of his death is from Ephraim of Bonn, who was thirteen at the time. I doubt I could have made something like that up. Also from Ephraim is the story of the Jewish girl left for dead and rescued by a Christian laundress. I have adapted the story for my purpose because I was so impressed by the courage that the unnamed woman showed in saving the girl.

Bernard of Clairvaux, who moves in and out of Catherine and Edgar’s lives, was certainly a real man who had a tremendous impact on Western Europe at this time. He preached the crusade but, more important to me, he also took responsibility for the persecution of the Jews that followed and really did travel throughout Lotharingia and Germany in an effort to stop it. Bernard was well aware of the power of words. While there is no record of him being at Trier at the time I mentioned, it was on his way to Worms where he was at the beginning of November. He did visit Trier the following year.

Nicholas and Geoffrey, Bernard’s secretaries, were also real people. Nicholas will one day get his comeuppance. Geoffrey will one day become abbot of Clairvaux.

At this time, there were many popular religious movements in Europe. Some died out of their own accord, some were labeled heretical and others were incorporated peacefully into the mainstream of Christian belief. The Cathars are one of the best known. From the beginning they set themselves apart from orthodoxy and, in the next century, the crusaders were sent to destroy them.

Archbishop Albero and Heinrich of Luxembourg and Namur
were at odds with each other from about 1140 on, which caused much misery to the inhabitants of the area. I thought they would figure in this book more, but I realized that, like most of us, Catherine and Edgar are not the movers and shakers, but the moved and shaken. Therefore, the deeds of the rulers of a place are only noted as they influence my characters’ lives.

Finally, anyone wishing to know more about the period and the specific sources for this book is welcome to send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope, care of the publisher. Currently, the bibliography for the first four books is on my Web site.

Once again, I thank all the readers who have followed Catherine and Edgar through the last five books. I hope that this journey is also diverting.

—Sharan

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.

THE DIFFICULT SAINT

A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

Forge
^®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty
Associates, LLC.

eISBN 9781466817210

First eBook Edition : April 2012

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Newman, Sharan.

The difficult saint / Sharan Newman.—1st. ed. p. cm.

“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”