The Difficult Saint

This novel in Newman's series of medieval mysteries featuring Catherine LeVendeur takes place in the twelfth century amidst Europe's religious and political turbulence and intolerance. Catherine, wife of one-handed Edgar, daughter of a Jewish merchant, and mother of two small children, is a Christian convert. Agnes, her estranged sister, has returned to Paris with the news that she is to marry a German lord. She wants no part of her Jewish family, except the sizable dowry her father can provide.

After Agnes departs for Germany, her family receives terrible news: Agnes' husband has been murdered by poison and Agnes herself is the prime suspect. Catherine, putting their differences aside, goes undercover in the dangerous anti-Semitic climate of Germany to save her sister's life and possibly lose her own in the effort.