The Good Knight (The Gareth & Gwen Medieval Mysteries Book 1)

Be prepared for some hard reading. Great story line, likable characters with depth. Old Welch words, hard, but once the reader adopts to them, the story moves along with a lot of action and suspense. Not sure I would call it a mystery, but there are some interesting twists, some thought provoking turns, and suspenseful surprises.

This is a good, clean medieval mystery. Gwen, her father and brother are traveling to perform at a wedding when they meet up with Gareth and find out the bridegroom has been murdered. As the story unfolds, it seems the bride-to-be should be thankful she won't be his wife. Mystery, adventure, danger and romance throughout.

Continual court intrigue, ingrained grievances, and unrequited love surround the murder of a groom on his travels to marry his bride. Actions and spoken words have unforeseen consequence, while thoughts must be closely held.

This book is the first in a series featuring Gwen, the daughter of a bard and a spy, and Gareth, the knight who has earned his way back from dismissal. The story is set in medieval Wales. When the story begins, a king and his entourage are ambushed and murdered while he is enroute to his royal wedding. Gwen and her family are traveling the same route to perform when they come across the gruesome scene. Gareth, her old romance, is also there to investigate. Since this is Wales, the names of people and places can be challenging. I was concerned that it would be difficult to keep the characters straight with their unfamiliar names, some of which are similar, but I soon got oriented. I would mangle them terribly if I tried to say them out loud, but with reading, it was fine. The story is told in a straightforward and linear fashion. Most of the possible motives for murder involved political intrigues. Gwen is leading a surprisingly independent life as an unmarried woman in medieval times which makes it possible for her to lead much of the narrative. The romance is chaste, and the language is mild. The book would be suitable for young adult readers and my sons might have enjoyed it when they were younger. It was free for Kindle and brought to my attention through an email from BookBub, so the price to entertainment ratio began with an advantage. I was interested enough to speed through it, but perhaps not interested enough to read more of the series.

Charming historical novel set in an exotic !and and time. Gives a Welsh history lesson. Surprise ending. Hard to put down.

This book is not as bad as some reviewers have described it. If you are a history geek like myself, this book takes place in Wales during what would have been the time Stephen and Maud were duking it out for the English throne. They were cousins (those gossipy monks also hinted lovers) and after years of fighting, Maud should have inherited but lost the throne to Stephen with the proviso that her son would take the throne after him. This left Wales to get its act together. In Ireland, the Danes are on the throne and mercenaries for hire. Gwen and Gareth are commoners heading toward a relationship when he loses his position, because he was asked to do something he could not stomach by the King's younger brother. I don't remember that much about Wales geography, but I am assuming that these Kings are actually sharing the present day Wales. The king has given his daughter to the neighboring King and he is killed on the way to the wedding. Gareth sees it when he was riding by and went to summon help knowing one man could not have stopped this.Gwen's father was the king's Bard and also taught one of the Princes. He was being raised in a castle alone and so the King told him to teach them both to give the boy some company. She was taught along with the king's second illegitimate son who grew to care for her. Her mother died giving birth to her brother that she then raised as her own. Her education stopped and her father turned down all offers for her hand to have someone to take care of them. She has made her peace with not having a husband or a family of her own and was a spy for the Prince in her travels. Gareth was knighted and worked for the same Prince and they meet again. Gwen's father wanted to ride with the king, but his horse went lame and he refused to go until such time that they could find what he considered a suitable mount. He planned to make his son the new Court Bard.I refute two things I saw in other reviews: This is not medieval CSI and the education level of a Prince Gwen obtained and the tracking abilities Gareth had are not enough to make this novel read like CSI. This was the Dark ages, but we lost a great deal of knowledge that was available then. This is a historical novel because anything set in the past dealing with historical figures qualifies for that name. Second, this book could use a good editor, but it was not poorly written. I enjoyed it and would read on if the author reduced the price. I do not think Ms. Woodbury writes at the price point she is trying to sell these stories for. This is a good medieval mystery although not a love story, because it is the first in a series. There is no formal relationship between Gareth and Gwynedd. The story continues past the ending of this mystery, but there is an ending with no cliffhangers. I enjoyed the piece, learned a few things about Wales in the 1100's and found this a good read.

This story takes place in medieval Wales. King Owain Gwynedd's daughter Elen was to marry King Anarward of Deheubarth. King Anarward and his entourage are ambushed and killed while traveling to his wedding. Gwen and her family stumble upon the crime scene while traveling to the same wedding. Gwen is the daughter of Meilyr who is the court bard. Gwen uncovers a conspiracy within the court of Gwynedd. Gareth is the knight who helps Gwen investigate the murder. Gareth and Gwen go on a quest to solve the murders. I really enjoyed reading this intriguing historical mystery novel.

Wow! I really don't know what to say about this book, but that it was at least unexpected. I hoped for some knights in shiny armor, fighting for their king and land, but instead, I got an adventurous journey of a completely different set.There is a mystery about the dead king. But don't be afraid, there is more than one king. So, it's like a murder mystery whit unlikely characters solving it. Would you expect a woman as an investigator in middle age? Yeah, me neither. But there it is, Gwen is a spy, and she will find out who did it. On top of all, no damsel in distress - we have a knight in distress and this lady will save him! Ok, not really a knight, he is known as a mercenary, and they are more dangerous and deadly. And those two are in love, which is pretty much obvious to everyone but them.If you manage to get past some exotic names (which I could probably pronounce but hardly spell down), and certain history details, you'll love this book.

At the heart of The Good Knight is a great story. Mostly that is the historical events upon which the tale is told, but there are elements the author has added to it to make it her own.Unfortunately, I found several areas which could have been improved: firstly, Gareth and Gwen - they are both fairly two dimensional. There is nothing much interesting about them and I didn't much care about their peril. This made the story seem somewhat dull at times because I didn't feel very invested.The other aspect which grated with me quite a but were the historical failings. I'm all for changing aspects to fit the story, but many of the behaviours of the protagonists (mainly Gwen) were completely beyond what would be acceptable at the time. Quite why this Bard's daughter was so beloved by Kings, Knight's and Princes was beyond me and she was elevated well beyond her status with freedoms she just wouldn't have had. A lot of the behaviours were those of modern characters, not those from 900 years ago. There was little in the book to root it in the time other than the background events as there was little historical detail other than that related to the plot - ie, little description of clothing, hairstyles, food, customs, decor, buildings. I felt the author had read books on the events in high medieval Wales, but not on how people actually lived.A lof of the language was also out of period: for example I looked up 'May to September marriage' when I considered it didn't feel like it was in use at the time - turns out it had origins in the 14th century when it was originally April to September. I guess it is easy to overlook things like this, especially in a self published novel, but it was one of several examples.I also felt the book was very dialogue driven. There is very little description and much of the character description is clunky. Many writers are overly heavy on dialogue, but for me I prefer more description. The narrators voice was largely used to dump info, much of it background stuff and sometimes things the current POV character wouldn't have known. This narrator exposition filled much of thr gaps between the dialogue.I found the book hard going at first because it just didn't hold my interest. I left it at 54% completed for a couple of weeks, but then read all the rest in one evening: the second half is certainly better. My review might sound quite scathing, but it is worth 3 stars. It might be more enjoyable still for those with little period knowledge.

Normally I like mediaeval and Dark Age stories, however I lost interest in this one about half way through. For some reason all the men seemed to be attracted to Gwen - her father had just turned down a marriage proposal for her, she met up with an ex boyfriend and even the prince said he loved her too much to have a dalliance with her. Then, after she was dragged off to Ireland one of the Vikings made her an offer! It all got rather tedious and got in the way of the plot.The another annoying thing was that everyone was forever "canting" their heads. Once or twice would have been okay but it was every few pages. It would have been nice if someone tilted their head for a change or cocked an ear.The ending was a surprise and I am still in two minds whether it was realistic or not. Probably, but by that time I did not really care who had done the dirty.

Murders pile upon ambushes and poisonings in this historical crime book. The bodies are so numerous we find the investigations blending together - as they should because they are all related.Early in the story a young Welsh woman, Gwen, is being escorted from one castle to another for a wedding, when her party comes across an ambush site. Soon after they have investigated they are themselves set upon.King Anarawd of Deheubarth, murdered, leaves chaos in the wake of his untimely death. He was the intended bridegroom and maybe someone wanted to stop him from joining his lands with that of his bride's family. Other issues include finding an Irish Dane among the company of murderers, and a connection of Gareth's, the brother and guard of Gwen. In these turbulent twelfth century days of sell-swords, hiring armed men comes easily. But Gwen and Gareth need to find out who is paying them, and why.While the many names seem daunting, there is a cast list at the start, and the various characters are well established. The author has done a good job explaining who they all are and what their station or function was in Welsh society. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the countryside and rough roads. Anyone who enjoys an unusual medieval crime story will be rewarded by taking a close look at The Good Knight.I downloaded an e-ARC to read in my own time. I chose to read and write a review. This is an unbiased review.

The story was fun and very readable. The portrayal of medieval Wales left a lot to be desired however and reminded me very much of the sanitized, rose-tinted view of history that one encounters at medieval society events. A woman simply would not have been able to do a fraction of what Gwen does, which grated throughout the book.

Holds the suspense right through to the end. Historically accurate, which unfortunately gives that unavoidable sense of "Have I read this before?" But it is just too well written for that to remain in doubt - I would have remembered this one, it's the history that is catching my mind, and in a way that just keeps on affirming the storyline despite some clever literary license and a neat sting in the tail. Don't turn to the end to find the sting, you really will ruin your entire read.Finally, don't read this if you want overwhelming blood and Gore, and gratuitous sex. Despite the battle hardened attitudes of the times, and the presence of Danes, Woodbury remembers that she is writing about human beings, and that a degree of decency and sensitivity is not the prerogative of modern times. Where battle,and blood, are required we get them, but not to excess or in too fine a detail. And while the need for reproduction is acknowledged, we observe no sex, because it doesn't fit the storyline; although there is a little romance, just not a sickening amount!