RELICS OF THE DEAD is the third instalment of Adelia’s series, still stuck in Henry II’s England. I am still baffled by the decision of publishing this book under a different title of GRAVE GOODS in the US. Perhaps it’s best for me not to know or wonder why.
A small note that all dates in this book have been shifted from reality to match with the timeline of Adelia’s stay in England. I still bother to research the original events but won’t fuss much about how they don’t match reality because again—this is a fuckin’ fiction—they don’t need to match reality.
To open the pages of Ariana Franklin’s books is to enter a world that I am partly familiar with—death—and a world that I’d never belonged to—Medieval England. I am in love with Ariana Franklin’s style of exposition, narration, and description of each scene. Sometimes she wrote in Adelia’s or other characters’ voices and I find that Adelia is a noisy scatter-brained person like me. These feelings captured me in the world that Ariana Franklin created. I’m still so saddened that she passed away as I thought that this series could easily be a ten-book or twenty-book deal.
There are so many unexplained deaths in the Medieval era which can be the base of Adelia’s adventures. But reality says otherwise. I must be content with only four books, soon-to-be five books, by Ariana Franklin. By the title of the book, RELICS OF THE DEAD, I knew for sure that this one would be more interesting than the second instalment. As you may have guessed, I have a thing with dead people and their wonders—yes, like Adelia. Well, she sometimes expressed her dismay upon examining dead bodies cause she prefers to heal the sick. While the only thing I hated in the process of examining dead bodies is the reports that I have to write afterwards. That task could be deadly boring and time-consuming and not fun at all, but it must be done. Gratefully, I am relieved of those tasks nowadays—no more reports to write but book reviews. I have so much to unpack from RELICS OF THE DEAD, therefore it’s going to be a long essay.
Contents
Relics of Glastonbury
RELICS OF THE DEAD took the setting of Glastonbury, in the spirit and theme of Arthurian legends, and the disasters happened to Glastonbury Abbey. See? I knew immediately that I will bathe myself in the enchanting mists of Avalonesque realm and mystery. The book opens with Brother Caradoc of Glastonbury writings:
And God was angry with His people of Somerset so that, in the year of Our Lord 1154, on the day after the feast of Saint Stephen, He caused an earthquake that it might punish them for their sins…
RELICS OF THE DEAD, page 1.
Historical reality recorded that there was an earthquake shaking the areas of Somerset on 11 September 1275. The 121 years difference immediately caught my eyes and I tried to find an explanation in the Author’s Note section—to which I didn’t find. A whole page of Wikipedia described the event of the earthquake, stating that it was felt in “…London, Canterbury, Winchester and Wales, and may have been felt across the rest of England.”
After the earthquake event, a second St Michael’s Church was built in the same site and somehow survived the silly Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. Today, what is left for us to see of the second St Michael’s Church was a three-storeyed tower—that pointy thing that we see atop Glastonbury Tor.
The said earthquake in RELICS OF THE DEAD then believed to have produced a fissure in the graveyard and Brother Caradoc saw figures lowering a coffin into the fissure. He also claimed that he heard someone mentioned that King Arthur is dead and is now inside the coffin that was being lowered down. The whole scene was then noted as a vision of Brother Caradoc who was injured when taking shelter in the Church of St Michael, the earliest timber structure built in the 11th or 12th century.
In RELICS OF THE DEAD, he appeared to also have conversations with St Dunstan, the 10th century Abbot of Glastonbury. Brother Caradoc was accompanied by his nephew, Rhys, when he told him of the vision. But Rhys realised that there was no fissure in the graveyard at all when they buried Brother Caradoc the next day. There was no Arthur, at least for the next twenty-four years…
Verdict
I really, really, really liked the theme and the story knitted by Ariana Franklin in RELICS OF THE DEAD. The ending of this book is much more to my taste, though I miscalculated the suspect as I said. I loved the ending and the overall messages in this book. It is a story of love, of devotion, no matter how treacherous and forbidden it is—love finds ways.
Conclusion
I really, really, really liked the theme and the story knitted by Ariana Franklin in RELICS OF THE DEAD. I liked how Adelia finally got her hands dirty with examining bones sans the more sophisticated knowledge of today’s forensics. The basics are still the same; the gadgets are what makes it different. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to visit Glastonbury during my stay in the UK. I was more drawn to set foot in Stonehenge, which is only an hour drive away. I had the burden to be responsible for dividing my travel and study schedules. This is still a decision I regret–maybe I didn’t spend enough time in the UK.
The ending of this book is much more to my taste, though I miscalculated the suspect as I said. I loved the ending and the overall messages in this book. It is a story of love, of devotion, no matter how treacherous and forbidden it is—love finds ways. I loved the conclusion of the case, and how the suspect(s) was(were) reprimanded, it is a beautiful ending that makes my heart full of oww… But—there is one unfinished business which I believe will be carried over to the next book: THE ASSASSIN’S PRAYER.
In my review of THE DEATH MAZE, the second book, I wrote that I didn’t really enjoy the storyline cause it’s too pacifist. RELICS OF THE DEAD’s ending can also be considered as a pacifist conclusion—nothing gory or bloody about it—but it’s bittersweet, it’s romantic in a dark way. I believe I gave this book a 5-star on Goodreads—can’t remember. I could have been writing more about extra subjects featured in RELICS OF THE DEAD, such as of lepers, leprosy in the Medieval period, the history of Glastonbury Abbey, blah blah blah. But I know there will be time to write about those in the coming Medieval mysteries books that are in my to-read pile.
Read my other reviews of Ariana Franklin’s books:
