A murdered priest, a missing body, stolen treasure: Brother Athelstan tackles his most challenging investigation to date.October, 1381. Brother Athelstan is summoned to the church of St Benet’s in Queenhithe to investigate the murder of a priest. Parson Reynaud has been found stabbed to death inside his own locked church. Other disturbing discoveries include an empty coffin and a ransacked money … empty coffin and a ransacked money chest. Who would commit murder inside a holy church? Who would spirit away a corpse the night before the funeral – and who would be brave enough to steal treasure belonging to the most feared gangleader in London?
Meanwhile, the death of one of Athelstan’s parishioners reveals a shocking secret. Could there be a connection to the murdered priest of St Benet’s?
Athelstan’s investigations will lure him into the dark and dangerous world of the gangmaster known as The Flesher, whose influence has a frighteningly long reach …
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Brother Athelstan and Cranston Are In the Thick of Murder, Theft, and Treason Right In London
This is the 18th novel in the Brother Athelstan Medieval Mystery Series, and the second that I have read. The novel opens in a seedy part of London that is filthy, smelly and run by a master criminal known as the Flesher. In a local church, a priest and a military man in the service of the Earl of Arundel were found each with a single stab wound to the heart and no sight of a struggle, the corpse of the Flesher’s mother, whose coffin was locked up in in the church the previous evening was missing and replaced with a ransom note, and a vault that requires two keys, one in the priest’s possession and the other in Flesher’s possession, was open and empty. Brother Athelstan and Cranston, Lord High Coroner of London, investigate. The main storyline takes off from here with the situation becoming much more complex as the Flesher’s ties to this church and its cemetery become revealed. The events of 18 years earlier when Cranston was in charge of ferrying some precious jewels, known as the Twelve Apostles, and their container, known as the Rose Casket, were stolen, and Cranston almost lost his life.
The B-storyline is very rich as the reader learns more about Cranston’s life and how it was affected by the events of 18 years earlier. The relationship between the man of violence, Cranston, and the man of the cloth, Athelstan, is so comfortable with each other and share very personal aspects of their lives with each other. These two characters became more real to me as I read this novel.
There are not any explicit sex scenes but some implied sex. The expletives are all medieval equivalents, so there should not be any problems for persons sensitive to foul language. Descriptive violence is described, and some as it occurs. In my opinion it is not excessive and is just reflective of the time. There is much use of medieval terms. I recommend reading this novel on a Kindle with easy access to the Kindle’s dictionary and searching the Internet. I used both routinely. Lastly, while this is the 18th novel in this series, I did not find anything that depended upon the previous novels, so first time readers should not shy away from reading this novel first.
Use of Medieval words while providing much authenticity and period flavor to the story did take up time searching for the meaning of these words. One distractor for me was the first part the novel that consisted of Cranston describing the events of 18 years earlier in discussion with Athelstan. All of this information was very important to the development of the storyline, but, for me, it was slow, and my interest wondered.
While I only reward novels with high star ratings when they capture and maintain my interest throughout the novel. As mentioned above, there was a significant part of the novel during which this was not true. On the positive side, the depiction of medieval London using the terms of the age was so enjoyable that in my opinion makes up for this issue. I give this novel a five star rating. If you read this series, it is a must. If you have not, this novel should be a good introduction into the series.
I have received a free kindle version of this novel through NetGalley from Severn House with a request for an honest, unbiased review. I wish to thank Severn House for the opportunity to read this novel early.