Rue for Repentance is the second book in the Janna Mystery series.  It follows on easily from the first book, Rosemary for Remembrance, which is a tribute to the skill of the author.  Followers and new readers alike will enjoy how Janna stumbles from one crisis to another, and then extracts herself with all the cunning of a fox. 

Forced to flee into the forest and fend for herself, Janna could not understand why life had dealt her such cruel blows.  She had lost her home, her mother and the friendship of Godric, all because of other’s ignorance.  But the one thing most precious to her that steeled her resolve to carry on no matter what life threw at her was the letter about her father. 

The letter spurred her on to find a way to one day look into the eyes of the man who helped to create her.  Chance or as some would say fate, always closely followed Janna and threw her tit-bits of hope to keep the desire to search for her father alive within her.  Edwin the outlaw was one of those morsels of hope, who tracked Janna as she blundered through the forest and stole her purse.  This act set off a chain of events that led both of them to a manor under the control of Serlo the reeve. 

Janna and Edwin were fleeing from the forester of Gravelinges, who was employed by Lady Alice to keep people from poaching.  Serlo protected them from the forester and agreed to shelter them at the manor in return for their labour.  A Saxon by birth Serlo hated the Norman laws of William I, which made him a slave on the very property his family had owned for hundreds of years.  His hatred of the Norman law only temporarily put Janna and Edwin in a safe place.  Serlo’s ambitions to regain his family’s land soon placed Janna and Edwin as well as Hamo, Hugh’s young cousin in mortal danger.  Janna would need all of her deductive skills and instincts to keep the three of them from peril. 

Felicity Pulman has penned a wonderful second book, which can take its place with pride next to the first in the Janna Mystery Series.  It contains all of the original’s intrigue with the plot and the vitality of the writing style.  The characters engross the reader from the first page to the last.  I found the book a pleasure to read and I am sure that those who read it will want to explore more of this fine writer’s work.