Crowner John Mystery – serie

When Crowner John is summoned to the bleak Devonshire moors to investigate the murder of a tin miner, he has little idea how difficult this new investigation will prove to be. The victim is a trusted and well-loved overman of Devon's most powerful and successful mine owner, Walter Knapman. There seems to be only one possible motive - to sabotage Walter's business. But the tinners have their own laws, and they are none too pleased at Crowner John's interference. Especially as their main experience of officials has been with Sheriff Richard de Revelle, whose notoriously high taxes keep them in a permanent state of fury and near rebellion. And then Walter disappears. Stephen Acland, Walter's business rival wastes no time in comforting Walter's beautiful wife Joan, who appears remarkably unmoved by her husband's disappearance. Meanwhile, Walter's brother is going frantic with worry ... or could it be guilt? A decapitated body, a missing tinner, a disgruntled band of miners and a mad Saxon, intent on the destruction of all things Norman. How on earth can Crowner John sort all this out when his wife hates him, his mistress has spurned him for a younger man, and his clerk is in the grip of a suicidal depression? Only Gwyn, Crowner John's indispensable right-hand man seems to be of any help at all, until he is arrested for murder and put on trial for his life.

May 1195, and Sir John de Wolfe is faced with a strange series of serial murders, which begins with the suffocation of a Jewish money-lender and proceeds through that of a London harlot, a dissolute priest and a burgess suspected of abusing young boys. The common factor is that an appropriate Biblical text is left at each murder scene, the mode of which reflects the alleged sin of the victim. This means that a literate and Bible-learned killer is involved - which, in an age where only 1% of the population can read or write - can only be a priest. There are at least twenty-five parish churches in Exeter, so the killer could be any one of more than a hundred clerics. Crowner John sets about to discover the identity of the homicidal priest.

Gilbert de Rideford is a Knight of the Temple of Solomon, and an old acquaintance from Crowner John's crusading days. He claims to have come into possession of a secret that could shake Christendom to its foundations - and he desperately needs John's help to escape from the secretive order of warrior monks. Suddenly swept into a world of religious intrigue and dangerous politics, Crowner John finds himself undertaking a life-threatening mission to the Island of Lundy - inhabited solely by notorious pirates - until finally the awful secret itself is revealed.

Exeter, 1195. Renovations at the new school in Smythen Street are disrupted by the shocking discovery of a partially mummified corpse hidden in the rafters - and Sir John de Wolfe, the county coroner is called to investigate. Richard de Revelle, Sir John's brother-in-law and founder of the school, immediately tries to blame Nicholas de Arundell, a young outlawed knight living rough on Dartmoor. As Sir John discovers, Nicholas has good reason to bear a grudge against the unscrupulous de Revelle. But is he really a killer? With the victim's identity unknown and the motive a mystery, the murder remains unsolved. But then comes news of a second violent death - and Sir John is forced to track down the 'noble outlaw' in order to find the answers.

With the city of Exeter ravaged by an outbreak of the 'yellow plague', Sir John de Wolfe, the county coroner, must divide his time between visiting his sick brother, William, who has been struck down by the disease, and dealing with a series of brutal murders which appears to be linked to a revival of heresy in the city. When some of the cathedral canons begin a crusade against this danger to the Church, Sir John finds himself accused of being too sympathetic to the heretics, bringing him into conflict with the ecclesiastic authorities. As the situation worsens, the coroner must seek sanctuary in order to save his skin. Can he survive long enough to unmask the real killer?