Cherith Baldry – författare

When icon painter Alissende presents Joscelin, the new Duke of Roazon, with a beautifully depicted image that shows the divinity as a Healer, she is not aware of the impact her painting will have on the history of Avorig. The Church agrees that their deity has so far only shown himself as a Warrior or Judge and has acute difficulties in accepting, this new worldview, except as a heresy.Before Joscelin is forced to abdicate, having become strongly convinced of this new message, he and his closest following - including Sir Valery de Vaux and his cousin Bertrand - flee from the holy city and try and find refuge in one of the neighbouring castles.The new political situation opens the gates for opposition and intrigue from other noblemen who claim the throne for themselves and therefore Joscelin and his people find themselves, on an eventful and dangerous journey before they can try to return to Roazon. And above all they are confronted with an evil power that has been lurking beneath the sea for aeons, and is only known through myths. When Autrys rises again, its intention is to eliminate not only Duke Joscelin but the whole of Roazon and the values it stands for.

When Thomas Coates, Vicar of St Paul’s, Ellingwood, disappears from his vestry minutes before the Sunday morning service, subsequently to be found dead on the North Downs, reluctant amateur detective Gawaine St Clair is called in to investigate. Gawaine and his companions assemble a list of suspects: Frank Reed, whose wife Ruth was refused Communion by Fr Thomas because she has been divorced; John Bretton who had clashed with Fr Thomas over his chaplaincy of the local prep school; Stella Bretton and Andrew Danby who have been breaking their marital vows together; Henry Hartley, Church Treasurer, who appears to have more money than he should have; Richard Coates, Fr Thomas’s brother, who inherits shares that give him control of the family business. Further complications arise when it is discovered that the local doctor’s receptionist is hopelessly infatuated with the doctor. Could her suicide be connected to Fr Thomas’s murder? What is the significance of Fr Thomas’s missing pectoral cross? And who else had a role to play in the crime?

‘There’s something fishy going on at St Cadoc’s Abbey’ The sudden death of Iris Grant’s great uncle Petroc gives an ominous new meaning to his warning about strange events on the isolated Cornish island of Morgarrow. Amateur sleuth Gawaine St Clair will need all his detecting skill to find the answers, especially when Iris herself is murdered soon afterwards. There are plenty of suspects to choose between. Bernard White, the chair of the abbey trustees, wants to build a timeshare resort on the island, aided by his accomplice Roddy Chatham. Local landowner George Pengelly needs the money from selling his land in this deal. And then there is Iris’s ex Jake Fletcher who is enraged at being dumped and believes he will inherit her property on the island, while the real heir is Annis Radford, Iris’s next-door neighbour. But when a further murder takes place, it seems that none of these could be the suspect. Gawaine is convinced if only he could work out why Iris was mysteriously wandering around the abbey grounds at midnight, he will be able to find the solution to the crime and reveal the killer.