THE MEADOWS OF MURDER

Another cluster of cases for a medieval Sherlock Holmes.

Despite the approach of Easter, life in London, especially in Brother Athelstan’s Southwark parish of St. Erconwald’s, is never free of danger. William the Weaver bursts into the church asking for sanctuary after having killed the Ishmaelite, a moneylender with an evil reputation. Unable to work, the dying William had taken a loan to support his family, and when he couldn’t repay it, the Ishmaelite demanded William’s wife and daughter in his bed, so William stabbed him, seeing it as self-defense. Athelstan has solved many a murder with Sir John Cranston, Lord High Coroner of London, but when William is soon found murdered in the locked church, his death is almost the least of their problems. A member of the Fishmongers’ Guild comes to Athelstan in anguish and confesses that a year ago, he and other guild members raped a handsome young Castilian man they’d hired to dance at a party, who later died of his wounds. In revenge, someone is killing guild members with a crossbow after sending them written warnings. Nor is all well at St. Osyth’s Priory on the Thames outside London, where Sister Veronica, Chaplain John, and a pair of newly arrived twin novices are among those who live a surprisingly pampered life. John of Gaunt, young King Richard’s uncle and the power behind his throne, is interested in St. Osyth’s deep-water inlet, which he uses to unload cargo from Castile. Gaunt is an enemy of the London guilds, which have too much power for his liking, but he still asks Cranston to investigate the murders and the loss of a great treasure. Most of the tangled plots and murders are related, but where’s the common thread?

A clever sleuth works deep in the heart of a sordid city as the scent of evil rises from every page.