Catherine LeVendeur

Series · 10 books · 1993-2004

By Sharan Newman

Books in series

Death Comes As Epiphany

1993

With Death Comes As Epiphany, the first in the Catherine LeVendeur mystery series, medievalist Sharan Newman has woven dark mystery and sparkling romance into a fascinating and richly detailed tapestry of everyday life in twelfth-century France, and one of the most moving love stories of all Abelard and Heloise. Catherine LeVendeur is a young scholar come to conquer her sin of pride at the Convent of the Paraclete, famous for learning, prayer, and its abbess, the fabled Heloise. When a manuscript the convent produced for the great Abbe Suger disappears, rumors surface saying the book contains sacrilegious passages and will be used to condemn Heloise's famous lover, Peter Abelard. To save her Order, and protect all she holds dear, Catherine must find the manuscript and discover who altered the text. She will risk disgrace, the wrath of her family and the Church, and confront an evil older than Time itself—and, if she isn't careful, lose her immortal soul. Winner of the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery

The Devil's Door

1994

1140 Anno Domini: A wealthy countess lies dying at the Convent of the Paraclete, brutally beaten by unknown assailants. Despite entreaties, she is unwilling to name her killer. Beautiful Catherine LeVendeur, the Paraclete's most learned young novice-scholar, vows to find out the identity of the woman's attacker. When her beloved Edgar comes to lead her from the convent to a life of the flesh, Catherine is torn between her quest for justice and the pledge she made him. Catherine doesn't want to break any of the vows she's made-and if she abandons her crusade for the truth, others will die, and the convent she loves may be destroyed...

The Wandering Arm

1995

Heaven has a way of playing with mortals. When the mummified arm of St. Aldhelm is stolen from the Salisbury Cathedral in England, Catherine LeVendeur must find the lost reliquary to save those she loves—and to do so, she must finally confront and come to terms with her family's Jewish heritage. The first Catherine Le Vendeur mystery to appear in trade paperback, The Wandering Arm is an absorbing, richly authentic adventure. At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Strong as Death

1996

A former novitiate in the Order of the Paraclete, Catherine LeVendeur has had more than her share of adventures. In fact, intrigue—and murder—seem to dog her path. When Catherine chose love over churchly devotion by falling in love with her Saxon nobleman, Edgar, her family as the earnest hope that married life would settle this most headstrong and unusual woman. But fate has a way of playing with mortals, and after suffering several miscarages and the birth of a stillborn child, Catherine is driven by a prophetic dream. She and Edgar will embark on a pilgrimage to the fabled monastery of Compostela, to petition St. James for a child, to take the holy waters, and to pray. On the journey Catherine and Edgar will encounter mad monks, some less-than-penitent crusaders, and a motley collection of pilgrims whose past deeds bind them all in a bizarre game of chance. When several pilgrims are gruesomely murdered, the trail of evidence points to an old sin left unshriven and a hidden villain whose quest for revenge may end in Catherine's death.

Cursed in the Blood

1998

The fifth in Sharan Newman's highly authentic and richly praised series, Cursed in the Blood finds Catherine LeVendeur venturing to the cold and tumultuous homeland of her husband - only to realize that vast differences between Edgar's family and her own. After making the pilgrimage to Compostela and giving birth to a son, Catherine LeVendeur is looking forward to an idyllic life at home in Paris. Yet her contentment is shattered when she and Edgar receive news from his family: Edgar's two oldest brothers have been ambushed and murdered, and he must return to Scotland to help avenge their deaths. At first, Edgar refuses to go, knowing what may await them in his war torn homeland. But Catherine believes in family loyalty and insists upon accompanying him with their baby. Once in Scotland, Catherine is surprised to learn that Edger's family is not what she imagined: His father, Waldeve, is a cold tyrant, and his remaining siblings are distant and secretive. Separated from Edgar during their efforts to uncover the truth, Catherine is expelled from his family's care. She becomes a stranger in a strange land, searching for refuge in a country ravaged by civil war at the same time she searches for her husband. Yet she knows that any haven she finds will only be temporary until she answers this question: Who among Waldeve's enemies hates his passionately enough to destroy his whole family - including, she fears, his infant grandson?

The Difficult Saint

1999

In The Difficult Saint, Sharan Newman returns to medieval France and the murder-haunted Catherine LeVendeur, heroine of this acclaimed series. After a harrowing stay with Catherine's in-laws in Scotland, Catherine and her husband, Edgar, have returned home with their two small children to live a life of peace at last—or so they hope. But soon the safety of those they love is questioned as anti-Jewish sentiment begins to grow in Paris. Raised Catholic by her father, Hubert, who poses as a Christian while practicing Judaism in secret, Catherine fears that the violence of the most recent crusade will repeat itself, victimizing members of her family. but before she can put too much thought into that, fate interrupts. Catherine's estranged younger sister, Agnes, has returned to Paris with the news that she has been promised in marriage to a German lord. Bitter about their religious differences Agnes wants no part of Catherine or Hubert—except for the sizable dowry that Hubert can provide. When Catherine and Hubert arrange for Agnes to be escorted to Germany with her dowry, they assume that they have seen the last of her. But then one of Agnes' escorts returns to Paris with terrible news: Agnes' new husband appears to have been murdered by poisoning, and Agnes is the prime suspect. In spite of their differences, Catherine believes in her innocence, and knows that she must do everything she can to save her sister's life. And when Catherine and her brood travel to Germany to begin sleuthing in a dangerously anti-Semetic climate, it becomes clear that Catherine and Edgar's long-dreamt of life of peace remains in the distant future—if they live to see it at all.

To Wear The White Cloak

2000

Catherine LeVendeur is an independent spirit, fiercely loyalty to both her faith and her family. The two sometimes conflict, but even though she has experienced joy and loss, her life is remains committed to preserving what-and who-she loves. Catherine's loyalty is sorely tested, however, when she and her family return to France after a long absence, and discover a Knight Templar has been brutally murdered-and someone is threatening to reveal Catherine's closely held secret about her family's Jewish roots. But Catherine never wavers-neither in her own Christian faith, nor her father's Jewish faith-and ultimately it falls upon her to discover who would kill a soldier of God. . . And why Catherine's family would be targeted in such a horrendous fashion.

Heresy

2002

Stated First Edition. A Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.

The Outcast Dove

2003

"The Outcast Dove" is the ninth title in Sharan Newman's Catherine LeVendeur mystery series. In these well-researched novels filled with fascinating details of medieval life, Newman conveys the sounds, smells, and human concerns of twelfth-century France and creates characters who seem to have just stepped off the streets of medieval Paris. The threat to peace and safety this time is not focused on Catherine LeVendeur, the heroine whose curiosity and passion for justice have sometimes led her to solve some grisly murders and brave horrors...but on those she loves. Her family's fortune is in commerce, and while her husband, Edgar, is a capable trader, they must rely on her dearest cousin, Solomon, to negotiate the treacherous path to riches. And therein lies the danger, for the fact that Solomon is her cousin is secret. Catherine's father was abducted as a child and raised as a devout Catholic—-but most of his family escaped and remained Jews. If their family connections are discovered, it could mean ruin to Catherine's family. Or death. As Edgar and Solomon travel to Spain to make their fortunes, Solomon is drawn into a scheme to try to rescue a Jewish girl take by Christians during the conquest of the Spanish city of Almeira. To complicate matters, and sorely vex his heart, Solomon encounters his long-lost father Jacob, a man who rejected his Jewish faith and is now Brother James, preparing his own trip to Spain to ransom Crusader knights taken by the Moslems. When a fellow monk is killed by an attacker in the street late at night, it's put down to a random mugging. But James, who is carrying the ransom money, believes that he will be the next target. Circumstances force him to turn for help to the son he abandoned. Solomon wants nothing to do with his father. But he's confronted by his past, his ancestry, the need for secrecy, and his love for those of his family who have chosen a different path. In confronting all these things, Solomon will come to a decision about who he is...and where he really belongs.

#10

The Witch in the Well

2004

Catherine LeVendeur is a creature of 12th century France whose life is a mirror of her times—but she is armed with a keen mind and lively curiosity. When Catherine's grandfather sends for his family to tell them their well is going dry, Catherine is alarmed. The family's wealth depends on its status, and if the well goes dry, their castle will fall. Her grandfather seems wracked with a fear deeper than that, though—and there's a mysterious woman who is either old or young, dead or alive—depending on whom you ask. Catherine doesn't believe the magical legends her family has handed down, that they are the descendents of a knight of Charlemagne's and a faerie—she puts her faith and distrust in the human condition. When bodies being appearing—not ghostly specters, but freshly-dead humans—Catherine knows she's right, and must uncover the secrets of the witch in the well...

Author

Sharan Newman

Author · 20 books

Sharan Newman is a medieval historian and author. She took her Master’s degree in Medieval Literature at Michigan State University and then did her doctoral work at the University of California at Santa Barbara in Medieval Studies, specializing in twelfth-century France. She is a member of the Medieval Academy and the Medieval Association of the Pacific. Rather than teach, Newman chose to use her education to write novels set in the Middle Ages, including three Arthurian fantasies and ten mysteries set in twelfth-century France, featuring Catherine LeVendeur a one-time student of Heloise at the Paraclete, her husband, Edgar, an Anglo-Scot and Solomon, a Jewish merchant of Paris. The books focus on the life of the bourgeoisie and minor nobility and also the uneasy relations between Christians and Jews at that time. They also incorporate events of the twelfth-century such as the Second Crusade and the rise of the Cathars. For these books, Newman has done research at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France Méridionale et Espagne at the University of Toulouse and the Institute for Jewish History at the University of Trier, as well as many departmental archives. The Catherine Levendeur mysteries have been nominated for many awards. Sharan won the Macavity Award for best first mystery for Death Comes As Epiphany and the Herodotus Award for best historical mystery of 1998 for Cursed in the Blood. The most recent book in the series The Witch in the Well won the Bruce Alexander award for best Historical mystery of 2004. Just for a change, her next mystery, The Shanghai Tunnel is set in Portland in 1868. The Shanghai Tunnel allowed Sharan Newman to explore the history of the city she grew up in. She found that the history she had been taught in school had been seriously whitewashed. Doing research in the city archives as well as the collections at Reed College and the Oregon Historical society was exciting and eye-opening. Many of the “founding fathers” of Portland turn out to have been unscrupulous financiers. Chinese workers were subject to discrimination and there was an active red light district. On the other hand, Portland in the post-Civil War period also saw some amazingly liberal movements. Women’s rights were an important issue as was religious toleration. Even at that early date, preserving the natural environment was hotly debated. This is the world in which Emily Stratton, the widow of a Portland merchant and the daughter of missionaries to China, finds herself. Newman has written a non-fiction book, The Real History Behind the Da Vince Code Berkley 2005. It is in encyclopedia format and gives information on various topics mentioned in Dan Brown’s novel. Following on that she has just completed the Real History Behind the Templars published by Berkley in September of 2007. She lives on a mountainside in Oregon. (Text taken from: http://www.sharannewman.com/bio.html )