Ghostly Murders

Paul Doherty was born in Middlesbrough and is the consummate professional when it comes to writing historical mystery novels. I for one do not know how he can be so prolific with his offering of books and yet make sure that each of them is well researched. Whether they be 13th, 14th, or fifteenth century they are always true to the period. He also writes about Ancient Egypt and Alexander the Great. A group of pilgrims have joined together, both for company and also for protection, as the roads and forests are littered with thieves and rogues, only too willing to relieve a traveller of their purse and most probably their lives as well. What adds even more spice to the journey is that several of the pilgrims know their fellow travellers but are not letting the fact become public knowledge. The pilgrims have agreed that at the end of each day's journey when they stop at an inn or other resting place one of them will entertain the others with a tale. Whether the story is true or not only the storyteller will know. The pilgrims are getting what shelter they can from the rain, in a ruined church while the Priest tells his tale. Young Philip Trumpington is accompanied to his post in the village of Scawsby by his brother and their friend. Philip soon discovers the church is haunted and the villagers scarred by a grim past. Is the priest telling a tale from his past, or is the story simply made up to pass the time until the rain stops? Does the church they are sheltering in have anything to do with the Priest's tale?

This pilgrim series of P.C. Doherty is truly excellent! In this story, we have the story provided by the Poor Priest and his brother the Ploughman. The group of pilgrims have been forced to spend the night in a ruined church, and the Poor Priest tells his story about another derelict church and the strange happenings there. Through the course of the story we are told about an ancient order of Templar knights, murder, mayhem and evil. Reparation and cleansing must be done in order to rid the small village of Scawsby of a terrible curse that has lasted for generations. This is one book that I found it hard to put down. What a wonderful story!

My mother-in-law is a fan of medival mysteries. Unfortunately I am not. So when I visit her at the nursing facility I loath the idea of reading "another" mystery that reminds me of the two-week period in a college English Lit course in which we dissected Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales".One afternoon, she had this book. I could tell from the beginning that it was a humorous, intelligent, and captivating book. I read aloud until I my throat hurt, and returned the next morning bright and early to continue. I so wanted to take it home with me, however she scolded me severely!We have now finished all of the "Tales" that Mr. Doherty has written. We have also read the Hugh Corbett series and are beginning on the new Egyptian books. As the first book that we read, it will always have a special place in my heart as well as my mother-in-law. Being a large print book, she 'could' read it by herself, but she always allows me to read them to her as it draws us together just as her son has drawn me into her family.

If you're not a fan of the Canterbury Tales, it doesn't matter! The pilgrims on their way from London to Canterbury are brought vividly to life in this fourth book of the series by P.C. Doherty. I COULD NOT put it down! It is a must-read for any ghost-story connoisseur. The pilgrims are passing a deserted English village called Scawsbury on the wild marshes of Kent. This particular tale, the priests' tale, involves the village in its heydey before the plague. It is a tale involving murder, vengeful ghosts, curses and a treasure. A warning: this is most definately not a book for someone who cannot handle ghost stories! If you don't fit that bill (and I most certainly do not), I heartily recommend this book for a night you are home alone and in search of a hair-raising good read! Enjoy!

It's a pilgrimage you won't want to miss! P.C. Doherty adds one more pilgrim's tale in "Ghostly Murders" to the three previously published and in this series the author definitely makes the literary journey worthwhile. Doherty's entourage is the same 31 that Geoffrey Chaucer assembled in Southwark in London in "The Canterbury Tales" who are on their pilgrimage to pay respects to the martyred St. Thomas a Becket at his shrine in Canterbury in 1389. From one's own British literature knowledge, the reader knows that each member is required to tell four tales, two going and two returning. In this series of mysteries, Doherty portrays the travelers much as Chaucer originally did and it is amusing reading to discover how he weaves Chaucer into this modern day re-telling. Of course, Chaucer died before all 124 tales could be "told," and so perhaps this is Doherty's way of completing the series. Doherty does not write in rhyming couplets and his narrative prose moves much more quickly; after all, Chaucer set out to tell his tales and each was required to possess a moral. Doherty doesn't seem quite so obsessed. A fifth tale by Doherty, however, has not appeared. In "Ghostly Murders" ("The Poor Priest's tale of mystery and murder as he goes on pilgrimage from London to Canterbury"), the author features Father Philip, who, along with his brother Edmund, has just been assigned his first parish in the village of Scawsby in Kent. That village has held a long, and evil, mystery dealing with the Knights Templars, a holy relic, rumors of lost treasure, evil incarnate, and, of course, a murder or two. By the end of the book, Father Philip "had learned a great deal, in his short stay at Scawsby, about good and evil, about the human will and the need to repair what was broken, for man to answer for what he did." This is quite an interesting series. Doherty writes under other names as well: Michael Clynes, Paul Harding, Anna Apostolou, to name three. Where he has time to be head-master of a school in London is beyond this reader, but we're glad he makes the time to write his books--they're all worth the read!