It's the summer of 1380 and the corpse of Edwin Chapler, clerk of the Office of the Green Wax of the Chancery, has been pulled from the Thames: Chapler has drowned, but not before he received a vicious blow to the back of the head. Then Bartholomew Drayton, a usurer and money-lender, is found dead in his strongroom, a crossbow firmly embedded in his chest: a real mystery because the windowless strongroom was locked and barred from the inside. So who killed him? And how? And are the two deaths connected? Sir John Cranston, the Coroner of the City of London, comes to survey the scene. When other clerks are murdered, each with a riddle pinned to his corpse, Cranston enlists the help of his secretarius, Brother Athelstan - and together they must pit their wits against a deadly adversary bent on murder and mayhem.
This is the seventh book in the Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan series. This novel combined with the early books in the Hugh Corbett series is one of Paul Doherty's earlier offerings and he has since written many more books and is now an established author of medieval novels and has also added a number of novels on Egypt to his ever growing list of titles. Having said that it is one of his earlier offerings does not mean that it is inferior to his current books, quite the opposite. The Hugh Corbett mysteries were and are extremely popular and Paul Doherty has found another winner with the Brother Athelstan series. Sir John Cranston, the Coroner for the whole of the City of London, is well liked by the people of the city and few will stand in his way when he is trying to solve a crime in the city. But the case that he is involved with at the moment, with the help of is secretary and friend Brother Athelstan appears to have no witnesses and no one who can throw any light onto why the murders are happening. Sir John had been call to watch the corpse of one Edwin Chapler, pulled out of the Thames. Normally the river men would have some idea of what had happened, but nobody knows, or if they do they are not saying. When more clerks are murdered Cranston and Brother Athelstan know they are up against something far more sinister than a drunken brawl.
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