Figure of Hate

#9 Crowner John historical mystery set in 1190's Devon. Lots of upheavals in the Crowner's life as the new Sheriff, who displaced his treacherous brother-in-law, begins dispensing the law. While honest, he's rather plodding and lazy and tends to let John handle most things. John's wife Matilda, an extremely socially conscious woman concerned with the neighbors' opinions and her diminishing status, seems to have developed a drinking problem after the fall of her brother from the highly lucrative Sheriff's position. And it's tournament season--jousting and melee are just beginning to gain popularity, and John is asked to referee at a joust to be held during the Exeter fair, given his battle experience as a knight of the realm. One of the knights, a local manor lord, behaves very badly after losing his joust (which meant losing his horse, armor and often a good chunk of money to the winning knight) and John publicly chastises him for his unchivalrous behavior. The coroner later meets up with Hugo Peverel a second time when he's found stabbed several times in the back in one of his barns on the manor. Soon his death is tied to two other previous deaths and the Crowner must figure out which of the man's friends or family killed the odious man--not an easy task with a wealth of suspects at hand, and it's further complicated when his brother-in-law Richard, a friend and neighbor of the family, throws in his support for them. I like this series a lot; the books seem to be well-researched and the author always has some interesting notes to read, too. Despite John's crabbiness, I like him and his secondary characters. The one thing that bothers me (and I know I've mentioned this before) is the constant use of the same verbs, often "animal sounds" attributed to the characters as they're speaking. For example, the Crowner, who is a rather gruff, curmudgeonly fellow, often snaps, growls or barks. His dandified brother-in-law frequently brays. If it wasn't for this, I would tend to rate the books higher, but at times it happens very frequently and is distracting enough to pull me right out of the story. I still look forward to the next one, though.

For a pathologist, he is an excellent writer. It is story and history combined and melds well with the subsequent century that Michael Jecks writes about regarding "Crowners and bailiffs." I regard both as good writers, which is an understatement.

Bernard Knight's books are always a good read and well researched and authentic without overpowering the reader with information he either does not need to know or is not interested in anyway. This case for Crowner John revolves around the tournament scene. These events took place regularly, but not always with the blessing of the King (Richard the Lionheart) and other later Kings, who quite rightly thought that a large gathering of heavily armed men was not always conducive the their own health and their grip on the throne. Crowner John is called from the inauguration of the new sheriff and preparations for the tournament that is about to take place to an unidentified body. The death is not accidental, but a brutal murder and Sir John has to start tracking down who the man is before he can set about finding his killer or killers. His inquiries lead him towards a well known family in the County the Peverals. Hugo who has already disgraced himself in the tournament is now head of the family after his father William was killed in somewhat strange circumstances at a tournament held earlier in the year. Hugo has an older brother, who has been overlooked as Lord of the Manor because of the falling sickness, and Hugo has greedily taken the title. He also has two younger brothers, one of them Ralph is also well known on the tournament circuit. The family do everything they can to block Sir John's inquiries and the relationship becomes so bad between them that it could have serious consequences for the Crowner . . .