Frobisher's Savage

Joan & Matthew Stock #8

by Leonard Tourney

In 1576, Sir Martin Frobisher made the first of three voyages in search of a Northwest Passage.

He got as far as Canada, and brought back to England two “proofs” that he had reached Cathay: some black stones that he claimed contained gold, and an Eskimo.

Frobisher’s Eskimo is given the name “Adam Nemo” and is set down on the estate of a wealthy landowner as a servant.

He learns the strange language of his captors, he performs his duties more than conscientiously, and he keeps to himself.

And then everything changes.

Visiting his only friend on a nearby farm, a deaf and mute youth named Nicholas, he finds the boy cowering in a corner and everywhere signs of a bloody massacre.

When the townsmen whom Adam summons arrive, they discover the mutilated bodies of the farmer, his wife, and their two youngest children in the well.

Merchant Matthew Stock tries to counteract the town’s growing hysteria, which fastens itself upon those they consider strangers — the “savage” and the “idiot.”

Matthew and his forthright wife Joan are firmly convinced of the pair’s innocence, and they are determined that the rule of law shall prevail.

There is more than one hair-raising episode, and a breathless pursuit through a snowstorm, before Joan Stock finally unearths the evidence to identify the real murderer…

Frobisher’s Savage takes Leonard Tourney’s Elizabethan mystery series to a higher level with a compelling story about the nature of blind prejudice.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery

287 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1994

About the author

Leonard Tourney came to BYU in 2006 after teaching at Western Illinois University, the University of Tulsa, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. A specialist in composition pedagogy and creative writing, Professor Tourney has authored scholarly articles in l7th century British literature, a critical biography of Joseph Hall, short fiction, and nine historical novels, the most recent a fictional memoir of William Shakespeare.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twenty years previously Sir Martin Frobisher returns from one of his voyages with a supply of black stone and an Eskimo (now named Adam Nemo) who now is a servant in a manor just outside of Chelmsford where Joan and Matthew Stock live.
One Sunday Adam Nemo discovers the cowering figure of his deaf and dumb friend Nicholas Crookback, with the bodies of his family who have been brutally murdered.
Only the Stocks believe Nicholas innocent and try to discover who and why the Crookback family were killed.
An interesting tale.
A NetGalley book.

[Carol Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violent times

Neighbors eager to condemn and rush to hanging innocents. Murder, theft, witchcraft, Papist politics all indictments once levied believed, victims powerless in face of charges by jealous, scared, angry townspeople.

[Caroline Thomson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I'd realised that this was (annoyingly) a prequel, I enjoyed it. The suggestions of the characters' relationship began to tie in and make sense. Would I have preferred to know and be able to make the decision whether or not to read it first? I'm really not sure. A good read though :)

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

1576 Sir Martin Frobisher returned from one of his voyages with a supply of black stone and an Eskimo (now named Adam Nemo)
1595 Adam is now a servant in a manor just outside of Chelmsford where Joan and Matthew Stock live.
One Sunday Adam Nemo discovers the cowering figure of his deaf and dumb friend Nicholas Crookback, and further investigation he discovers the bodies of Nicholas's family who have been brutally murdered. Only the Stocks believe Nicholas and Adam innocent as they try to discover who and why the Crookback family were killed.
An entertaining story, a re-read

[Sarah-Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

In May, I reviewed Leonard Tourney’s The Player’s Boy Is Dead, a murder mystery set in Elizabethan England. That book was interesting, but not completely successful. Frobisher’s Savage is another volume in Tourney’s series and offers a more satisfying tale than did The Player’s Boy Is Dead.

Frobisher’s Savage has its root in fact: in 1576, explorer Martin Frobisher returned to England from a voyage in which he claimed he has reached Cathay (he’d actually reached Canada). As proofs of his success he brought back evidence both mineral and human—black rocks that he claimed contained gold and a “savage” he named Adam Nemo.

Tourney’s mystery places Nemo as a servant on a country estate and provides him with a friend, Nicholas, a deaf-mute boy living on a nearby farm. When Nicholas’s parents and two of his siblings are murdered, suspicion quickly comes to rest on these two outsiders. Neither Nemo nor Nicholas has a real motive, but that is less important that the fact of their differences from the local population.

The plotting of this novel is solid, but it’s the characters and their perceptions of one another that stand out. Tourney’s imagined Nemo is a fascinating character, a man who has had little control over the events of his own life and who cannot remember much of his own story pre-England. If you’re curious about social and racial hierarchies in Elizabethan England, you will find this title a thought-provoking read.

[Dorothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the 16th century, this mystery has the protagonists Joan and Matthew Stock setting out to determine the truth behind a case in which an Eskimo who has been brought to England is accused of a murder. The basis of the accusation turns out to be nothing but blind prejudice. It is pretty well-written, an interesting read.

[Frank Clarke]

A very pleasant and delightful read, well structured and thought out.