Book picks similar to
Falconer's Crusade by Ian Morson


mystery
historical-fiction
historical-mystery
historical-mysteries

The Last Templar


Michael Jecks - 1995
    But it is the newly arrived knight, Sir Baldwin Furnshill, who discerns the deceased was no victim of a tragic mishap; he was, in fact, murdered prior to the blaze. Simon would be well-served by accepting further assistance from this astute, though haunted and secretive stranger. For a second fatal burning indicates that some harsh evil has invaded this once-peaceful place, and its hunger has yet to be sated.

A Play of Isaac


Margaret Frazer - 2004
    TO BRING US MURDERThe year is 1434, and preparations are under way for the Corpus Christi festival in Oxford, England. Plays are a traditional part of the celebration, and Joliffe and the rest of his troupe are to perform Isaac and Abraham. Until then, their theatrical antics are in demand by a wealthy merchant who offers them an opportunity to ply their trade for room and board.But when the body of a murdered man is found outside the barn door where the troupe is lodging, Joliffe must raise the curtain on the merchant's mysterious past and uncover the startling truth behind a murder most foul...PRAISE FOR THE PLAYER JOLIFFE SERIES "Everything I'd hoped to find: memorable characters, a meticulously detailed world, an intriguing crime, and a satisfying conclusion." - Roundtable Reviews"Will entertain and confound you with its intricately plotted mystery and richly detailed writing... Ms. Frazer knows the fifteenth century and it shows..." - Romance Readers Connection"Deftly drawn characters acting in a stage of intricate and accurate details of medieval life." - Affaire de CouerCarefully and faithfully rendered, 15th-century England and France and all the political difficulties come easily to life... Medieval mystery fans will once again enjoy the clever player Joliffe and his adventures. - The Mystery ReaderPRAISE FOR MARGARET FRAZER"Prepare to be enchanted as Margaret Frazer transports you back to the 15th century." - Romantic Times"More than just a good read. The reader comes away sadder and wiser, knowing that what tehy've read is that stuff of real life. Brava!" - Historical Novels Review"A smooth and absorbing saga of conspiracy and treachery in 15th-century England... A tantalizing secret turns out to have stunning political implications." - Publishers Weekly"Finely plotted and subtly shaded. Frazer has the detailed substance that brings an era to life, while her characters' psychological makeup is as cunningly wrought as the historical background." - Publishers Weekly"Margaret Frazer has quietly claimed her place as one of the preeminent writers of historical crime fiction, delivering the whole package - a good mystery, wonderful characters, and a fascinating period of history. Her novels are a dream to read." - Aunt Agatha's NewsletterHerodotus Award Winner.Twice nominated for the Edgar AwardTwice nominated for the Minnesota Book AwardA Romantic Times Top Pick.

A Trust Betrayed


Candace Robb - 2000
    Though he originally set out for trading purposes, Margaret now worries that he may have been caught up in the rebellion against the English -- or may have been killed. Roger's cousin Jack travels to Edinburgh seeking news of the missing merchant, but his body is returned home bearing wounds that could not be self-inflicted. Now Margaret sets out in search of her husband and the truth about Jack's death. The journey takes her to British-occupied Edinburgh, where Margaret's uncle reluctantly agrees to let her stay at his inn. As the two become part of the perilous activities, they risk endangering his clandestine war-time work.

Death in the Dark Walk


Deryn Lake - 1994
     Summoned to the magistrate’s office as prime suspect, Rawlings not only clears his own name but impresses Fielding so much with his power of recollection that he is asked to investigate the crime. From gaming hell to fashionable house, Rawlings follows a trail of lustful liaisons and illicit intrigue which prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the girl has had quite a past … a past with threatening secrets. Death in the Dark Walk is a richly atmospheric and compelling Georgian mystery woven around the real characters John Fielding, the phenomenal sightless magistrate known as the ‘Blind Beak’, whose Runners formed London’s early police force, and John Rawlings, the Apothecary reputed to have invented soda water.

Veil of Lies


Jeri Westerson - 2008
    Crispin Guest is a disgraced knight, stripped of his rank and his honor - but left with his life - for plotting against Richard II.  Having lost his bethrothed, his friends, his patrons and his position in society.  With no trade to support him and no family willing to acknowledge him, Crispin has turned to the one thing he still has - his wits - to scrape a living together on the mean streets of London.  In 1383, Guest is called to the compound of a merchant - a reclusive mercer who suspects that his wife is being unfaithful and wants Guest to look into the matter.  Not wishing to sully himself in such disgraceful, dishonorable business but in dire need of money, Guest agrees and discovers that the wife is indeed up to something, presumably nothing good.  But when he comes to inform his client, he is found dead - murdered in a sealed room, locked from the inside.  Now Guest has come to the unwanted attention of the Lord Sheriff of London and most recent client was murdered while he was working for him.  And everything seems to turn on a  religious relic - a veil reported to have wiped the brow of Christ - that is now missing.

The Harper's Quine


Pat McIntosh - 2004
    He identifies the corpse as a woman he recognized at the May Day dancing in Glasgow Cross, the runaway wife of the cruel and unpleasant nobleman John Semphill. With Maistre Pierre, a French master mason involved in a new building at the Cathedral, Gil begins his search for the murder weapon in the lanes and yards of the city and to ask some difficult questions. His investigation leads him to Semphill and his household—his mistress and men-at-arms—dealing with the burgh constable, householders and musicians, as well as his feelings for the mason's lively daughter, Alys, whom he has come to find increasingly attractive. The complications of a second murder lead Gil and Pierre to the Isle of Bute. There Gil faces rumors of missing silver, a controversial elopement and the significance of a girl with a toothache, as well as a personal crisis around his family's expectations that he should join the priesthood. When the killer is finally exposed, justice strikes from an unexpected direction. A medieval murder mystery, The Harper's Quine picks up where Brother Cadfael left off.

Wine of Violence


Priscilla Royal - 2003
    Although the Simon de Montfort rebellion is over, the smell of death still hangs like smoke over the land. Even in the small priory of Tyndal on the remote East Anglian coast, the monks and nuns of the Order of Fontevraud long for a return to tranquil routine. Their hopes are dashed, however, when the young and inexperienced Eleanor of Wynethorpe is appointed their new prioress over someone of their own choosing. Nor are Eleanor's own prayers for a peaceful transition answered. Only a day after her arrival, a brutally murdered monk is found in the cloister gardens, and Brother Thomas, a young priest with a troubled past, arrives to bring her a more personal grief. Now she must not only struggle to gain the respect of her terrified and resentful flock but also cope with violence, lust and greed in a place dedicated to love and peace.

Fortune Like the Moon


Alys Clare - 1999
    Felons have been released from English prisons at the command of the new king, Richard Plantagenet, and suspicion centers on them. But when Josse d'Acquin, the king's knight, arrives from France to investigate, he discovers treacherous currents of lust, greed, and anger flowing closer to the Abbey, and in the haunted Weald of Kent, whose woods hide strange secrets....With the help of the worldly, beautiful Abbess Helewise, Josse ferrets out an array of suspects. Their one precious piece of evidence is a gold, rubied cross. But the shocking truth of Gunnora's death is an elusive-and far more dangerous-prize.AUTHORBIO: ALYS CLARE lives in Tonbridge, England, in the area where Fortune Like The Moon is set. This is the first in a series of medieval mysteries set in the Weald of Kent.

The White Rose Murders


Paul Doherty - 1991
    Benjamin and Roger are ordered into Margaret's household to resolve certain mysteries as well as to bring about her restoration to Scotland.They begin by questioning Selkirk, a half-mad physician imprisoned in the Tower. He is subsequently found poisoned in a locked chamber guarded by soldiers. The only clue is a poem of riddles. However, the poem contains the seeds for other gruesome murders. The faceless assassin always leaves a white rose, the mark of Les Blancs Sangliers, a secret society plotting the overthrow of the Tudor monarchy...This novel was previously published under the pseudonym Michael Clynes.

A Murder at Rosamund's Gate


Susanna Calkins - 2013
    Lucy can't believe it, but in a time where the accused are presumed guilty until proven innocent, lawyers aren't permitted to defend their clients, and—if the plague doesn't kill the suspect first—public executions draw a large crowd of spectators, Lucy knows she may never find out what really happened. Unless, that is, she can uncover the truth herself.Determined to do just that, Lucy finds herself venturing out of her expected station and into raucous printers' shops, secretive gypsy camps, the foul streets of London, and even the bowels of Newgate prison on a trail that might lead her straight into the arms of the killer.In her debut novel Murder at Rosamund's Gate, Susanna Calkins seamlessly blends historical detail, romance, and mystery in a moving and highly entertaining tale.

The Tainted Relic


The Medieval Murderers - 2005
    Jerusalem lies ransacked. Amidst the chaos, an English knight is entrusted with a valuable religious relic: a fragment of the True Cross, allegedly stained with the blood of Christ. The relic is said to be cursed: anyone who touches it will meet an untimely and gruesome end. Several decades later, the Cross turns up in the possession of a dealer, robbed and murdered en route to Glastonbury. Investigating the death, Bernard Knight's protagonist, Crowner John learns of its dark history. In Oxford in 1269, the discovery of a decapitated monk leads Ian Morson's academic sleuth William Falconer to uncover a link to the relic. In 1323, in Exeter, Michael Jecks' Sir Baldwin has reason to suspect its involvement in at least five violent deaths. Thirty years later, several suspicious deaths occur in Cambridge - and, once again, the tainted relic has a crucial part to play. Finally, it's despatched to London, where Philip Gooden's Nick Revill will determine its ultimate fate.

The Unquiet Bones


Melvin R. Starr - 2008
    However, he feels no real calling—despite his lively faith—and he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris, and then hanging his sign in Oxford.Soon after, a local lord asks Hugh de Singleton to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cesspool. Through his medical knowledge, Singleton identifies her as the impetuous missing daughter of a local blacksmith.The young man she loved—whom she had provoked very publicly—is quickly arrested and sentenced at Oxford. But this is just the beginning of the tale. The story of Singleton's adventure unfolds with realistic medical procedures, droll medieval wit, romantic distractions, and a consistent underlying sense of Christian compassion.

A Morbid Taste for Bones


Ellis Peters - 1977
    Now, in 1137, the ambitious head of Shrewsbury Abbey has decided to acquire the sacred remains for his Benedictine order. Native Welshman Brother Cadfael is sent on the expedition to translate and finds the rustic villagers of Gwytherin passionately divided by the Benedictine's offer for the saint's relics. Canny, wise, and all too wordly, he isn't surprised when this taste for bones leads to bloody murder.The leading opponent to moving the grave has been shot dead with a mysterious arrow, and some say Winifred herself held the bow. Brother Cadfael knows a carnal hand did the killing. But he doesn't know that his plan to unearth a murderer may dig up a case of love and justice...where the wages of sin may be scandal or Cadfael's own ruin.

The Queen's Man


Sharon Kay Penman - 1996
    Eleanor of Aquitaine sits upon England's throne. Her beloved son Richard Lionheart is missing, presumed dead - and the court whispers that her younger son, John, is plotting to seize the crown. Meanwhile, on the snowy highroad from Winchester, a destitute young man falls heir to a blood stained letter, pressed into his hand by a dying man. The missive becomes Justin de Quincy's passport into the queen's confidence - and into the heart of danger, as he pursues a cunning murderer and jousts with secret traitors in Eleanor's court of intrigue and mystery . . .

Blind Justice


Bruce Alexander - 1994
    Falsely charged of theft in 1768 London, thirteen-year-old orphaned printer's apprentice Jeremy Proctor finds his only hope in the legendary Sir John Fielding. Fielding, founder of the Bow Street Runners police force, then recruits young Jeremy in his mission to fight London's most wicked crimes.