A review by judyward
The Difficult Saint by Sharan Newman

3.0

This historical mystery, set in 1146 in both Paris and Germany, convincingly creates a picture of life in the 12th century which was teeming with political and religious conflict. The religious conflicts were centered on rising anti-Jewish prejudices and violence against Jews that was increasing as a new Crusade was announced by Louis VII of France and also on the attempts to control and eliminate heresy within the Catholic church. Hubert Le Vendeur was born a Jew, but raised as a Christian. However, as he ages, he finds himself yearning to openly identify himself as a Jew and join the Jewish community. His daughter, Catherine, wants him to totally accept Christianity to protect his family and his other daughter, Agnes, will have nothing to do with her family because of her father's Jewish heritage which they refuse to publicly denounce. Well, that's not exactly true. She demands the sizable dowry that her father can provide when she is about to enter into a very advantageous marriage to a German lord. Shortly after her marriage, Agnes is accused of killing her new husband by poison and Catherine and her family travel to Germany to try to discover the truth. The mystery, for me, was a subplot to the information contained in the book about the horrors that individuals were willing to inflict on each other in the name of religion. I was glad that the author included the influential Abbott Bernard le Fontaines of Clairvoux, an historical figure, who denounced violence against Jews and forbid it in territory under his authority.