Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 12: Dame Averilla

Dame Averilla is the infirmarer at the Benedictine Abbey of the Virgin Mary and Edward, King and Martyr, in Shaftesbury. While political unrest roils the countryside, Averilla has to track down a collection of herbal lore that has gone missing (hampering her ability to tend to the sick, one would think). She also gets involved in the perhaps related disappearance of Dame Agnes, whom many in the abbey believe is possessed.

If you noticed some similarities here between Averilla and another crime-solving healer located at a Benedictine abbey during the period of unrest known as The Anarchy, you would not be alone. There are a a couple of differences worth noting. 

The first is that Averilla has to also manage internal unrest between nuns of Anglo-Saxon background and the new, young nuns who are daughters of the Norman elite. We do not see this sort of tension at the Benedictine abbey in Shrewsbury, though there is some conflict there related to class and education.

The other difference is that there are only three books in the Averilla series, one a prequel. So if there is any ripping off being done, it didn't last.