But the accident that felled him has left him with only half a life; his memory and his entire past have vanished. As he tries to hide the truth, Monk returns to work and is assigned to investigate the brutal murder of a Crimean War hero and man about town. Which makes Monk's efforts doubly difficult, since he's forgotten his professional skills along with everything else...

    Was it suicide or murder? The Pope wanted to prove Henry VI was worthy of beatification, while the King, Edward IV, claimed he had died witless and incapable. But the closer Luke came to the truth, the more his life fell into danger.

    The king, target of vicious rumors, covertly appoints his old friend and chamberlain, Francis, Viscount Lovell, to dig up the facts of the boys' fate. Francis, doubting but loyal, doggedly questions everyone who might know something--including two on the brink of execution. And he keeps up his interrogations even after Richard's death, until at last he knows the whole truth. Readers may or may not buy this solution, but it's reasonable and said to be based on documentary evidence. Doherty's account of a savage era carries gripping scenes of prisons and palaces, smoky taverns and the misty Thames, murders, plots, spies, secret rooms that become secret tombs, the bloody battle of Bosworth and one extremely gruesome execution.