The Harlem Midwife is Roberta Rich’s second book about midwife Hannah Levi, who has fled to Constantinople from Venice with her silk trader husband, Isaac. It’s 1579 and Hannah works as imperial midwife in the palace of Sultan Murat III, looking after a thousand women in his harem. She’s particularly good because she invented some of her own birthing tools and saves lives that would have been lost by others.

But, as in The Midwife of Venice, also by Canadian writer Rich, Hannah’s kind heart and sense of right and wrong outweigh her sense of survival and she finds herself caught up in intrigue.

Her husband’s brother Leon has died, leaving his widow Grazia alone and without money. Under “an ancient tradition from biblical times,” the Rabbi rules that Isaac is also married to his brother’s widow since Leon died without heirs. Isaac’s plea that “Jews no longer practise this custom” fails to move the rabbi who insists the law is for the widow’s protection.