SHARON KAY PENMAN: R.I.P.

More sad news. Historical fiction writer Sharon Key Penman passed away yesterday. Sharon Kay Penman was the author of nine critically acclaimed historical novels: The Sunne in Splendour, Here be Dragons, Falls the Shadow, The Reckoning, When Christ and his Saints Slept, Time and Chance, Devil’s Brood, Lionheart, and A King’s Ransom. Her tenth historical novel, The Land Beyond the Sea, was published in March of 2020. She also wrote four medieval mysteries. Her first was The Queen’s Man, the queen in question being Eleanor of Aquitaine, a finalist for an Edgar Award for Best First Mystery from the Mystery Writers of America. Her other mysteries: Cruel as the Grave, Dragon’s Lair, and Prince of Darkness.

Her good friend and fellow historical mystery author Priscilla Royal wrote this (reprinted with permission):

Sad news. Sharon Kay Penman died in her sleep at 6AM today. For months, she had suffered poor health but only recently was diagnosed with a rare cancer. Her end came quickly. She was at peace with that. By any spiritual standard, she was one of the truly good people with her compassion and charity. She even humanely trapped house mice to release into a nearby forest. Her books qualify as historical fiction classics with her beautiful prose and epic storytelling. I often told her she must be descended from a Welsh bard. Through her work, she will always be with us and that is how she would want to live on. But we shall still mourn.