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Margaret Frazer
To begin with, ‘Margaret Frazer’ was two people, both
interested in writing and in medieval England, one of them
with modern murder mysteries already published, the other
with file drawers, shelves, and notebooks full of research
on England in the 1400s. They met in a historical
recreationist group called the Society for Creative
Anachronism and joined forces to write The Novice’s Tale,
the first in a history mystery series centered on a
Benedictine nun, Dame Frevisse, of a small priory in
Oxfordshire. During their collaboration, the authors worked together
by first laying out the general idea of a story. Then
the ‘Frazer’ half of the team developed the plot and
characters in detail and wrote the first draft.
The ‘Margaret’ half then re-worked that into a second
draft, the ‘Frazer’ half re-worked that, and then they did
the final draft together. The collaboration worked well
through six books and two award nominations—an
Edgar® for The Servant’s Tale and a Minnesota Book
Award for The Bishop’s Tale—before the ‘Margaret’ half
grew tired of the series and amicably returned to the 20th
century, leaving the ‘Frazer’ half to continue the series,
with an Edgar® nomination for The Prioress’ Tale. Margaret Frazer writes stories set in medieval England
because she greatly enjoy looking at the world from other
perspectives than the 20th century. Her brief college
career was as an archaeology major with writing intended as
a hobby, but with one thing and another, her interest came
down to medieval England with writing as her primary
activity, only rivaled by my love of research. Frazer
learned about medieval English politics, religion,
philosophy, sociology, economics—all the multi-layered
elements that go into making the lives of people in any
time period. So when the chance came to write a mystery
series set in medieval England, she took it. In everyday life, Margaret is Gail Frazer, living in the
countryside north of Elk River, Minnesota, with four cats
and not enough bookshelves. Over the years she’s had
various jobs, including librarian, secretary, reseacher for
a television station, gift shop manager, and assistant
matron at an English girls’ school. Married once upon a
time but not anymore, she has two well-grown sons. She
writes more often than not, and when once she moaned “I
have to get a life,” her family informed her, “You have
one. It’s in the 1400s.” That seems to sum up things rather
nicely.
Living a devout life in Medieval England, Sister
Frevisse is sinfully good at discerning the mysteries of
the soul…and solving the crimes of the human heart.
Books:
 A Play of Heresy, December 2011
A Play of Piety, December 2010
A Play of Treachery, December 2009
The Apostate's Tale, January 2009
The Traitor's Tale, January 2008
The Apostate's Tale, January 2008
A Play of Lords, August 2007
The Sempster's Tale, January 2007
The Traitor's Tale, January 2007
A Play of Knaves, August 2006
The Sempster's Tale, January 2006
The Widow's Tale, January 2006
A Play Of Dux Moraud, August 2005
The Widow's Tale, January 2005
The Hunter's Tale, December 2004
A Play of Isaac, August 2004
The Hunter's Tale, January 2004
The Bastard's Tale, January 2004
The Clerk's Tale, December 2002
The Squire's Tale, December 2001
The Reeve's Tale, September 2000
The Maiden's Tale, August 1998
The Prioress' Tale, August 1997
The Murderer's Tale, August 1996
The Boy's Tale, August 1995
The Bishop's Tale, December 1994
The Outlaw's Tale, February 1994
The Novice's Tale, November 1993
The Servant's Tale, November 1993
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