Thank you, Wanda. Have you read any of Susanna Gregory's other series? (Simon Beaufort is another pen name she uses.)

I have not, TA. Any recommendations?

Depends on the period you're most interested in!

The Geoffrey Mappestone books are set in the age/aftermath of the First Crusade (partly in England, partly in the Holy Land).

Matthew Bartholomew is a physician practicing and teaching medicine in 14th century Cambridge; his sidekick is a Benedictine monk (and fellow teacher at Michaelhouse College). The first Matthew Bartholomew novel is A Plague on Both Your Houses (set, you guessed it, during the plague years).

And Thomas Chaloner is a secret agent in Restoration London, recently back from a prolongued diplomatic/spying mission in the Netherlands. The first Chaloner novel is A Conspiracy of Violence.

Or, you could sample a bit of Mapplethorpe and Bartholomew in the first entry of the Medieval Murderers series, The Tainted Relic: An Historical Mystery! :)

Susanna Gregory isn't quite as good as C.J. Sansom, but I like her books -- she's got great characters, and she is very good on historic detail and atmosphere; even if occasionally a "who is who" cast list at the beginning of the books would make it easier to keep track of character names and their place in the novel. Definitely a cut above most other historical mysteries, in any event.

All have been duly noted in the pink notebook. Thanks so much TA. I enjoy all of these time periods and believe I will start with Geoffrey Mappestone as the Crusades hold a soft spot in my heart.

Then you'll definitely enjoy the better part of The Tainted Relic as well. It starts right with the capture of Jerusalem, and follows a relic cursed then and there through the centuries until today. Geoffrey Mappestone is the first to come into contact with the relic in question, and after him another former crusader -- the hero of Michael Jecks's Knights Templar series, Sir Baldwin Furnshall -- as well as a medieval coroner, Matthew Bartholomew and his sidekick Brother Michael, a 16th century Oxford don, and an actor in Shakespeare's company (the King's Men) ... as well as a modern day construction worker. :)

I still love the idea of that notebook!