CORPSE CANDLE

After several excursions to ancient Egypt (The Slayers of Seth, p. 616, etc.), prolific Doherty returns to Sir Hugh Corbett’s world of medieval England (The Devil’s Hunt, 1998, etc.). A conflict is brewing in St. Martins-in-the-Field, a Benedictine monastery in Lincolnshire, between Abbot Stephen and other monks, led by his chief lieutenant, Prior Cuthbert, who want to build a spacious guesthouse in the abbey’s so-called Bloody Meadow. The burial mound at the meadow’s center is said to contain the remains of Sigbert, an ancient king, and the abbot considers it sacrosanct. The controversy reaches new heights of intensity when Abbot Stephen is found stabbed to death in his chambers. King Edward, the abbot’s longtime friend, sends Corbett, his Keeper of the Seal, to investigate. Corbett’s intervention is sorely needed, because Abbot Stephen’s death turns out to be only the first in a string of killings. It takes a heavy hand and much persistence before Corbett ferrets out the monastery’s complex relationship with its generous benefactors, the Harcourt family, and solves the disappearance long ago of Lady Margaret Harcourt’s husband, Sir Reginald.

The incredibly convoluted doings, past and present, may tax the reader’s patience, but medievalists will doubtless appreciate Doherty’s return to his home ground.