"Despite the long-held perception that medieval and early modern women were as quiet, pious, and obedient as society expected them to be, the truth is more complex. The Bailiff's Wife builds ... to create a picture of a society in flux ... as the tale unfolds, it develops into a classic murder mystery." – C. P. Lesley, New Books Network (listen to the interview at NBN)
" … not only a page-turning murder mystery with plenty of unexpected plot twists, it is also a teeming tapestry of Restoration England--the food, the herbal medicines, the religious and political complexities, and a village full of characters." – Fran Hawthorne, Story Circle Network Review
" … an intriguing, multi-layered mystery. The treatment of women, the daily lives of the Quakers, the superstitions and prejudices of the time, and a murder mystery are all woven together." – Bonnie Demoss, Historical Novels Review
" … the village is a character in its own right ... The reader is immediately immersed in the time and place." – Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest
The Bailiff's Wife
When Sarah Kidd arrives in Chalfont St James, the townspeople make it clear that they would rather let a crime go unpunished than listen to an outsider. But Sarah is sure that it is her husband whose body was discovered near the inn and buried in a pauper’s grave, the fortune he earned as a bailiff missing. And she has an opinion about who is to blame. Quaker Frances Bright and the new parish priest, Arthur Brunskill, both also outsiders of a sort, take up her cause, each in their own way. Yet it takes the actions of an adolescent girl, Frances’ daughter, Jane, to ensure that justice, of a kind, is done.A 17th-century English broadsheet about a murder in a village north of London sparked this tale of a woman's search for justice. Against the background of Restoration English, we find ourselves in a world not unlike our own, full of passions and prejudices, but built without apology on rank and deference.
ISBN 9781944453282
$18.00 paperback, 286 pages
October 21, 2025
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