She is found by the aging mercenary Gwilherm de Vannes, who rescues and cares for her, something very necessary as in addition to her physical damage she has completely lost her memory.

Meanwhile, in the Cambridgeshire Fens, a young girl is raped, brutally attacked and left for dead. When Matilda and her retinue arrive at the castle and ask for protection, Maud has to agree, but this means greatly increasing the number of armed men who will defend the place against Stephen’s powerful army.

One such is the Castle of Kenniford, in Oxfordshire, whose sparky young chatelaine Maud has recently been forced into a marriage with an elderly and drunken husband. The war has forced many to take sides, and many castles to be besieged. Matilda, who has been living in Normandy, has brought an army over to overthrow Stephen and gain what she believes is rightfully hers. After the death of King Henry I, the crown has passed to his nephew Stephen instead of the king’s own choice, his daughter Matilda. Winter Siege is set in 1141, less than a hundred years after the Norman conquest of England. It is a standalone novel, and not even strictly speaking a crime novel, though a crime is committed at the start and its effects resonate throughout the story.

Just to clarify, this is not another book in the four-volume series that started with Mistress of the Art of Death. Her journalist daughter Samantha Norman took on the task of finishing the novel. Of course I had discovered by then that Ariana Franklin was the pen name of the journalist Diana Norman, wife of the well-known film critic Barry, and I knew that this, her final book, was left incomplete at the time of her death. So I was greedy for more Franklin, and when I saw that Winter Siege was coming out, I was happy to have a review copy. Franklin manages to make the period come alive in the most remarkable way – no ‘forsooths’ or ‘gadzooks’, or whatever they said in those far off days, just perfectly recognisable people going about their business as people have always done, but wonderfully combined with obviously spot-on historical accuracy.

Seeing that it was a crime novel set in the early middle ages, I wondered if I’d enjoy it – I’ve not been drawn to fiction set in this era before. I had not heard of Ariana Franklin until a few months ago, when I was given her Mistress of the Art of Death as an early birthday present.

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