The Janna Mysteries is a novel series by Felicity Pulman

Felicity Pulman

Felicity Pulman is an Australian author with an interest in crime, history and fantasy. Her novels Ghost Boy and the Shalott trilogy reflect her fascination with such possibilities as knowledge travelling through time, ghosts, parallel realities and reincarnation...

 follow Janna (Johanna is her full name) and her quest to find her father in order to seek vengeance for the death of her mother. The novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s are set in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in the 1140s during the civil war (see The Anarchy

The Anarchy

The Anarchy or The Nineteen-Year Winter was a period of English history during the reign of King Stephen, which was characterised by civil war and unsettled government...

) between Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood...

 and King Stephen of England.

Book 1: Rosemary for Remembrance

Janna is learning to be a healer. She is being taught by her mother but she feels her mother is not giving her enough responsibility. They argue over this, and also because Janna wants to know the identity of her father. Her mother agrees to tell her but, before she can, she dies in mysterious circumstances. Janna suspects poison, and puts herself in danger trying to find out who was responsible. Suspects include the midwife

Midwifery

Midwifery is a health care profession in which providers offer care to childbearing women during pregnancy, labour and birth, and during the postpartum period. They also help care for the newborn and assist the mother with breastfeeding....

, the apothecary

Apothecary

Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....

, the priest

Priesthood (Catholic Church)

The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....

 and Robert of Babestoche. Helping her are the villein Godric, who is in love with Janna, and also the handsome nobleman

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

, Hugh, who is attracted to Janna but must marry well as he has no property of his own. When her home is burned to the ground, Janna is forced to flee - but by then several secrets have been uncovered giving Janna some clues about her father's identity. She sets off to find him in order to avenge the death of her mother.

Book 2: Rue for Repentance

Janna's house has been burnt to the ground by superstitious

Superstition

Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....

 villages and she is on the run. Disguised as a boy she meets the fugitive

Fugitive

A fugitive is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from private slavery, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals...

 Edwin, and together they find work at a manor farm

Manor house

A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

, which Janna later discovers is managed by the handsome Hugh, nephew of Dame Alice who owns the property. All is not as it seems. A series of 'accidents' occur, marked by the presence of a sprig of rue

Rue

Rue is a genus of strongly scented evergreen subshrubs 20–60 cm tall, in the family Rutaceae, native to the Mediterranean region, Macaronesia and southwest Asia. There are perhaps 8 to 40 species in the genus...

; finally a child goes missing, and Janna vows to find him. But who can she turn to for help? Edwin, who stole from her in the forest? Godric, who has turned against her? Or Hugh, who stands to gain everything if the child dies? Janna needs all her wit and common sense

Common sense

Common sense is defined by Merriam-Webster as, "sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts." Thus, "common sense" equates to the knowledge and experience which most people already have, or which the person using the term believes that they do or should have...

 to solve the mystery of the child's disappearance - but time is running out, for both of them!

Book 3: Lilies for Love

On the run from Robert of Babestoche, the man who will stop at nothing, even murder, to hide his secret, Janna takes refuge at Wiltune Abbey. There she desperately seeks to learn how to read, so that she can uncover the truth about her unknown father. But first there are mysteries to be solved. Who is the newcomer asking questions about Janna? Who stabbed the lord Hugh at St Edith's fair? Was the knife meant for Janna, or will Hugh's friendship with the beautiful Emma have disastrous consequences for them all? Who is destroying a precious manuscript and who is leaving lilies at the shrine of St Edith? The civil war between King Stephen and Emperess Matilda has reached a crucial point, and Janna meets the empress when she comes to the abbey, a meeting that will open her eyes to a whole new world and further discoveries about her identity.

Book 4: Willows for Weeping

In Willows for Weeping, Janna leaves the abbey in the company of pilgrims en route to Amesbury where she hopes to find out more about her mother's past. But a stolen relic and a dead man bearing a mysterious message add complications to the journey, especially when the leader of the pilgrims is found dead at Stonehenge. A charismatic pilgrim catches Janna's heart, particularly when he hints that he knows something about her father's identity. Together they travel with a group of jongleurs towards Winchester. When the missing message suddenly turns up things start to go horribly wrong as Janna is forced to choose between love and duty.

External links

• Pulman's web-site