The first of my Angevin dynasty novels, When Christ and his Saints Slept, is one of my own favorites. I loved writing about an era that was not as familiar to many of my readers, allowing me to surprise them occasionally. This was also the first time that I inserted a purely fictional character into the story line. Why did I choose to do this? I thought that Maude and Stephen had many admirable qualities. But they were often their own worst enemies, and it occurred to me that readers might like someone to root for until young Henry was old enough to play a significant role. Since we know that King Henry I had at least twenty illegitimate children, I figured one more couldn’t hurt, and so Ranulf fitz Roy was born, half-brother to Maude and Robert, cousin to Stephen. I discovered that it was fun to have so much freedom when writing of Ranulf; I’d never been able to determine a character’s destiny before. My fondness for Saints probably owes something to my unique opportunity to play God with Ranulf.
As much as I enjoyed writing Saints, though, it was challenging, both because of its length and because I had so many conflicting sources to sort through. By the end of the book, I felt that I needed a break, a chance to do something different before plunging into the next historical saga, Time and Chance. And since mysteries have long been my favorites for pleasure reading, I decided I’d like to try my hand at writing one. It was easy enough to select the time and place; how could I resist the temptation to write about Eleanor and her Devil’s Brood?
When I began to breathe life into Justin de Quincy, I had to give him a background that explained how he’d obtained the skills he needed to be useful to Eleanor. His was a world in which people’s opportunities were defined by birth, so he’d not have learned to wield a sword or ride a horse or even to read and write unless he mattered to someone in a position of power. But I also wanted him to be something of an outsider, not quite belonging. And so, Justin became the illegitimate son of a bishop, not an uncommon occurrence in the Middle Ages. His father saw to it that he had a good education, but he did not offer recognition and Justin did not learn his true history until he was twenty. His shock at this revelation would set him adrift, feeling lost and alone. A chance encounter with bandits and a dying man would set him onto the road that led to Westminster, to the woman who would become his anchor, who would give him what he’d never had before—a sense of identity as the queen’s man. And he would discover that his rootless upbringing had made him ideally equipped to serve Eleanor, for he was a social chameleon, able to take on the coloration of his surroundings. He could maneuver in the shark-filled waters of the royal court, but he was also able to blend in at the local alehouse or tavern, a very useful attribute for one of those “men from the shadows, who’d learned to leave no footprints and cast no reflections in mirrors” as they did the bidding of their royal master or, in Justin’s case, royal mistress. I did four mysteries with Justin and enjoyed writing them, feeling very honored when The Queen’s Man was nominated for an Edgar, the mystery community’s equivalent of an Oscar or an Emmy. But I did not argue when my publisher asked me to focus again on the historical sagas, for when they explained that the sagas sold better, I knew that was so. I did not kill Justin off, though, keeping him on life-support until I’d have the opportunity to resuscitate him. I am delighted that the time has come, and I am planning to do another mystery now that The Land Beyond the Sea is nearing publication. The working title is Serpent’s Tooth and the story will be set in France, England, and Wales, where Justin will cross paths again with the young Welsh prince, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, whom he first encountered in Dragon’s Lair.
