The investigation is complicated by the Sheriff of York’s desire to use suspicion of the murders to arrest a thief and smuggler whom Cordwainer is certain is not the culprit, and it is hindered by Cordwainer’s advanced age and physical infirmities. When Cordwainer realizes that the Prioress of Clementhorpe will be the next victim and the Sheriff refuses to help, Cordwainer must call on every resource he can find to stop the killer.

    Burglary, arson, kidnapping and murder are every-day events. The streets even echo with rumours of the mysterious art of alchemy being used to make gold for the King. Join Seb, a talented but crippled artist, as he is drawn into a web of lies to save his handsome brother from the hangman's rope. Will he find an inner strength in these, the darkest of times, or will events outside his control overwhelm him? Only one thing is certain - if Seb can't save his brother, nobody can. Interview with the Author What makes the Sebastian Foxley Medieval Mystery Series special? In my Sebastian Foxley Medieval Mystery Series, I’ve used my personal research of the medieval period to recreate the dark and dangerous London of the 15th century. These historical touches bring authenticity to my historical thrillers and mysteries, recreating the everyday life that my protagonist Sebastian Foxley would have experienced. What order should the books be read in? Each book is a stand-alone story, but in my first medieval mystery, The Colour of Poison, we are introduced to all of the main characters, when Sebastian is in the greatest need of help and support. The second in my mystery series, The Colour of Gold, is a short story which acts as a bridge between The Colour of Poison and the next full-length book in the series, The Colour of Cold Blood. Why should readers give your medieval mysteries a try? I have established a considerable reputation as a historian and writer of several non-fiction works, which look at both ordinary lives in medieval London, as well as the medicine of the period. With my professional scientific background and a detailed knowledge of art, I have been able to create thrilling situations populated with believable characters who can use the science and knowledge of the period to solve their mysteries. As you'll soon find out, you will be taken to a world from the past in my Sebastian Foxley Medieval Murder Mystery Series. I hope you'll give the series a try!

    Everyone who had contact with him had reason to dislike him, but who had reason to kill him? The Sheriff of Worcestershire's thief taker, wily Serjeant Catchpoll, and his new and unwanted superior, Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, have to find the answer. And as the claustrophobic walls of the Abbey close in on the suspects, the killer strikes again.Previously published as The Lord Bishop's Clerk.

    Routine business for the average investigative medieval monk.Unfortunately this isn’t a tale of average monks. Anyone who would put the idiot Brother Simon in charge of a murder investigation is either one chant short of a plainsong, or is up to something. When Brother Hermitage, innocent in every way, including bystanding, is lined up for execution, he begins to wonder if something might be going on. Perhaps his new companion Wat, weaver of pornographic tapestry, can figure out what it is. Before it's too late. If you are a lover of the historical detective genre, if you have a deep respect for the worlds created, don’t read this book. It’ll only upset you.

    But by 1100, Sir Geoffrey Mappestone is one of the few knights who has survived the harrowing journey, the battle to take the city, and the political infighting over the rule of the kingdom.Upon returning to Jerusalem one day following an exhausting desert patrol, Geoffrey hears screams coming from the house of a Greek baker and discovers that one of his closest friends, a fellow knight, has been murdered in the woman’s bedchamber. But this is not the first suspicious death in the city – other knights and priests have also been killed, and all, it is discovered, with the same type of curved dagger with a jewelled hilt.Ordered to investigate the deaths by his liege lord, Prince Tancred, Geoffrey realises too late that they are somehow part of a plot to topple the most formidable lords from their uncertain hold on power. It is not long before he finds himself drawn into dire straits involving some of the most dangerous men in the city – and learns that his closest friends could also be his deadliest enemies.

    it made a welcome change to discover Elizabethan England through the eyes of a lesser mortal.' The Historical Novels Review Thomas Finbow is more than just a humble falconer, in the service of Sir Robert Vicary and Lady Margaret. He is a widowed father, a skilled ex-soldier and tenacious hunter. Far from the court and corruption of London, Thomas resides in the picturesque Berkshire Downs. All is as it should be until Lady Margaret’s loathsome brother is found murdered. To distract from her mourning, Lady Margaret travels to London, in search of gryfalcons, with Thomas accompanying her. However, when they reach the city things take a dark turn. Secrets begin to unravel and it becomes clear that the murder of Lady Margaret’s brother is only a small piece of a greater puzzle. Once Thomas starts to put the pieces together, he realises that he, and his Mistress, are in grave danger. With a target on his back, Thomas must come face to face with some of London’s most fearsome criminals. Chasing the truth at all costs, the falconer’s wits and strength are put to the test. A tale of murder, lust and courage, Thomas Finbow must reveal secrets of the past in order to make sense of the present. John Pilkington was born in Preston, into one of the oldest Lancashire families. He writes historical fiction as well as drama which has been adapted for radio, theatre and tv. He is the author of the Thomas the Falconer Mystery series, including The Ruffler's Child and A Ruinous Wind. Praise for John Pilkington: ‘A sturdy and entertaining historical for fans of Elizabethan mysteries’ Library Journal ‘This latest entry in Pilkington’s Thomas the Falconer series is a vigorous adventure featuring a likeable hero, an intriguing plot and a fine sense of period ambience.’ Booklist

    It came from Lancashire. John Bexwith, my steward at Appleton Manor, is dead."Susanna frowned, surprised that this news should have affected her husband so strongly. "The man was quite elderly," she said hesitantly, "was he not?""Your memory is excellent," Robert told her, absently tucking an unruly lock of dark brown hair back up under her brocaded cap. "He was found face down in a marrow-bone pie."With that incredible statement, Robert placed the letter in his wife's outstretched hand.Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie is a delightfully cozy Elizabethan mystery introducing Susanna, Lady Appleton. When her husband's steward dies in a unique, ignominious, and highly suspicious manner, Susanna takes advantage of her husband's absence on a political mission for Queen Elizabeth to investigate Bexwith's mysterious demise.The serving wench who found Bexwith claims that he was frightened to death by a ghost, but Susanna can think of several poisons that could have been concealed in the marrow-bone pie. (Susanna is something of an expert on poisons, having been inspired by her sister's fatal encounter with some poisonous berries to write a cautionary herbal for housewives.)Even if Bexwith was poisoned, was it accidental or intentional? As if the case weren't complicated enough, Susanna must also unmask a "ghost"-- or are the ghost and the poisoner one and the same?Kathy Lynn Emerson's debut Elizabethan mystery will delight as it introduces you to a sixteenth-century husband's worst nightmare: an intelligent, no-nonsense wife who happens to know hundreds of poisons.

    But what begins as a clandestine arrest ends in cold-blooded murder. And when Fitzurse, the knights’ ringleader, kidnaps Theodosia, a beautiful young nun who witnessed the crime, Palmer can sit silently by no longer. For not only is Theodosia’s virtue at stake, so too is the secret she unknowingly carries—a secret he knows Fitzurse will torture out of her. Now Palmer and Theodosia are on the run, strangers from different worlds forced to rely only on each other as they race to uncover the hidden motive behind Becket’s grisly murder—and the shocking truth that could destroy a kingdom.

    Pulling together the food, flowers and a thousand other details for one of the most significant social occasions of the year is her happily accepted responsibility. But when her husband's degenerate nephew is found murdered, it's more than the ball that is ruined. In fact, Lady Montfort fears that the official police enquiry, driven by petty snobbery and class prejudice, is pointing towards her son as a potential suspect.Taking matters into her own hands, the rather over-imaginative countess enlists the help of her pragmatic housekeeper, Mrs. Jackson, to investigate the case, track down the women that vanished the night of the murder, and clear her son's name. As the two women search for a runaway housemaid and a headstrong young woman, they unearth the hidden lives of Lady Montfort's close friends, servants and family and discover the identity of a murderer hiding in plain sight.In this enchanting debut sure to appeal to fans of Downton Abbey, Tessa Arlen draws readers into a world exclusively enjoyed by the rich, privileged classes and suffered by the men and women who serve them. Death of a Dishonorable Gentleman is an elegant mystery filled with intriguing characters and fascinating descriptions of Edwardian life—a superb treat for those who love British novels.

    Light-fingered Jack Blackjack knows he s not going to have a good day when he wakes with a sore head next to a dead body in a tavern s yard. That would be bad enough but when he discovers what s in the dead man s purse, the one he d stolen, his day is set to get much worse. The purse explains why the mysterious man with the broad-brimmed hat wants to catch him. But so does the Lord Chancellor, as does the enigmatic Henry. In fact, almost everyone seems to be after Jack Blackjack. If it weren t for the rebel army marching on London determined to remove Queen Mary from her throne and install Lady Jane Grey in her place, Jack could leave the city but with the bridge blocked and every gate manned, there s no escape. Instead he must try to work out who killed the man in the yard, and why. But it won t be easy as the rebel army comes ever closer and the death toll mounts

    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.

    The Lord of the Isles, overlord of the islands, assigns the task of finding the killer to Muirteach, the Prior’s bastard son.Since breaking with his father and leaving the monastery, Muirteach has spent his time acting as scribe for his uncle, an island chieftain. Muirteach’s father, a powerful churchman, leaves behind a mistress and several other bastards as well as his embittered eldest son, who is thankful he will never hear the words, “My bastard son, the cripple” again.As Muirteach seeks to find his father’s murderer he is helped by the physician Fearchar Beaton, and his daughter Mariota. Muirteach himself is suspected of the murder, as are the Prior’s mistress, her family, and the sub-prior. The killer strikes again, His Lordship wants the mystery solved before the Pope and the King in Edinburgh learn of it, and Muirteach himself must come to terms with his own troubled relationship with his father. Muirteach’s investigation submerges him deep into a whirlpool of deceit, long buried sins, and treachery, from which no one emerges unscathed.

    Much of the country is in the iron grip of Louis of France and his collaborators, and civil war rages as the forces of the boy king try to fight off the French. Most of this means nothing to Edwin Weaver, son of the bailiff of Conisbrough Castle in Yorkshire, until he is suddenly thrust into the noble world of politics and treachery: he is ordered by his lord the earl to solve a murder which might have repurcussions not just for him but for the future of the realm. Edwin is terrified but he must obey; he takes on the challenge and learns more until he uncovers the horrific secret which has been dead and buried for fifteen years, a secret which might kill them all - and realises there are some questions to which he might not wish to know the answers.

    But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist another chance to unravel a mystery, even if it means trudging through the snow to her townhouse next door.One of Jane's former servants, Prudence Smith, is dead -- an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder by a rare and deadly poison. The house where the girl worked is full of suspects and, though Prudence dabbled with the hearts of more than a few men, Lenox is baffled by an elusive lack of motive in the girl's death.When another body turns up during the London season's most fashionable ball, Lenox must untangle a web of loyalties and animosities. Was it jealousy that killed Prudence? Or was it something else entirely, something that Lenox alone can uncover before the killer strikes again -- disturbingly close to home?

    But when she needs someone to confide in, she turns to the honest warmth of her friend Fridgyth, the half-pagan herb-wife. A divisive and life-altering decision taken at the Great Synod is swiftly overshadowed as the monastery is ravaged by a deadly plague. As she tends the sick, Fridgyth starts to suspect that not all the deaths are natural. Despite Hild’s stern warnings “not to meddle” she sets out to investigate. Can Fridgyth’s wisdom and intuition unmask the murderer and unravel the dark politics surrounding the deaths and clandestine arrival of two young scholars?A SWARMING OF BEES is an absorbing and richly atmospheric murder mystery.