Nightshade

To me, P. C. Doherty's medieval mysteries always have a "you are there" quality to them.  In just a few pages, you're in the filth and stink of early fourtheenth century England where the freezing cold is constant and the sun never seems to shine.  That is certainly true of Nightshade (#130), a Hugh Corbett mystery. 

As the Keeper of the King's Secret Seal, Hugh has been abruptly summoned to the court of Edward I as the Christmas celebrations with his family are barely over.  The royal treasury at Westminster Abbey has been looted  and objects from the treasure trove have surfaced in the rural Essex town of Mistleham.  Lord Oliver Scrope, the local landholder, has caught and hung the man who offered a certain Saracen dagger from the Westminster robbery.  The king is not pleased with Lord Scrope's actions in the matter, nor the fact that the baron has promised to turn over a valuable item, the Sanguis Chrisi, a solid gold cross set with five priceless rubies he looted from the Templars' treasury during the fall of Acre in the Holy Land.  So far Scrope has failed to do so.  The king wants these returned immediately.  The Templars are rumored to be in pursuit of their lost treasure as well. Will they beat Hugh to the prize? 

Nor is the king happy about Lord Scrope's massacre of a group of heretics, the Brethren of the Free Spirit, living in a deserted village outside Mistleham, preempting the king's justice.  Now the townspeople are being stalked by an assasin armed with a longbow who strikes at random.  The king wants his due, and peace restored to the region.  Hugh and his faithful clerk Ranulf are charged with the task.  Is the root of the problem at Mistleham greed, heresy, inheritance, jealousy or all of the above?  Or could the the situation in Mistleham have its roots in the past?  Hugh must step carefully to put together the pieces of this puzzle, but not before a key player is murdered.

This is a cleverly plotted locked room mystery based in part on the actual robbery of the Royal Treasury in Westminster Abbey in 1303.  P. C. Doherty weaves the threads into a story that will keep you guessing until the end while you shiver in the atmosphere of the past.