The Name of the Rose is a wonderful medieval murder mystery. It is set in an unnamed Italian monastery during the year 1327, when tensions between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor were running high. Adso of Melk, a Benedictine novice, travels to the monastery with his teacher William of Baskerville, a Franciscan Friar, to help negotiate a talk between agents of the Pope and agents of the Emperor. They arrive to find the monastery in an uproar- one monk has already met a dreadful end, and more victims soon follow. William uses a mixture of medieval logic and Holmesian deduction to trace the killer's steps, while Adso (serving as his Watson) keeps notes, eventually writing down the whole bizarre set of events and their horrible conclusion.