It has been almost a year since I last read something by Candace Robb, which is a pity because this book reminded me how much I enjoy her historical mysteries. I used to think that her Kate Clifford books are my favourite, but this second book in the Owen Archer series makes me want to read them all.

The Lady Chapel starts with a gruesome murder – Will Crounce, a merchant, is killed and his hand cut off. Owen Archer is sent to investigate and he makes no progress until some time later, Gilbert Ridley, is killed as well. After that, Owen is brought forward into a dark web of murder that reaches far beyond what he can imagine.

At the same time, Archbishop Thoresby finds himself pitted against the new court favourite: Alice Perrers. Is she really as innocent as she appears or is there something sinister in her sudden rise to power?

I enjoyed everything about this book. The mystery was excellent and I was kept guessing throughout the whole story. The characters, too, are very well-drawn. Owen and his wife, Lucie, are the easiest characters to like, but even Archbishop Thoresby shows himself to be a more complex character than I initially thought.

Speaking of Thoresby, I really loved how the book grounded itself in the past. I had to pause once to look up the Thoresby and Perrers – they are both real people and it was fascinating to think about how they might have interacted. Of course, this is fiction but Thoresby reaction to someone he considers an upstart is plausible, and I’m secretly hoping to see more of Perrers in the future because she is more than capable of matching wits against anyone.

And of course, Robb does an amazing job drawing us into the world of medieval York. It helps that I’ve actually visited the city, so it was fairly easy to visualise all that was going on. I was going to talk about how I really liked the way the characters inhabited the worldview of the time, but apparently, I already covered that in my review of the first book in this series (which was also very good, by the way)! I think the worldbuilding here engaged all the senses and the way the characters think was both somewhat different yet familiar (people are people, after all) from how we see things today.

Overall, this was an excellent historical mystery and it not only entertained me, it also brought back really nice memories of my trip to York. I will definitely be reading another Owen Archer book and this time, I will not wait almost a year to do so!