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Murder Most Holy (Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan, Bk 3)
Murder Most Holy - Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan, Bk 3 Author:Paul C. Doherty, Paul Harding In the early summer of 1379 in London, Sir John Cranston, coronor of the city, is invited to a great banquet at the Regent's palace on the Thames. There he is trapped into a wager with Signoir Gian Galeazzo, Lord of Cremona, who challenges him to resolve a certain murder mystery within two weeks. Men have been found dead in the scarlet chamb... more »er of one of Cremona's manors. They have no mark upon them; they have neither drunk nor eaten poison; there are no secret passages or entrances to the room. And they all have awful expressions of terror upon their faces.
Realizing that his reputation and future wealth now rest upon the solving of this mystery, Cranston seeks the help of his faithful secretarius Brother Athelstan. However, Athelstan has problems of his own. At St. Erconwald's, during renovation of the sanctuary, a skeleton has been unearthed. Religious hysteria ensues when a man is miraculously healed while leaning in prayer against the skeleton's coffin. Athelstan watches helplessly as his parish church attracts now only well-meaning pilgrims but all the religious hucksters and swindlers in London's underworld.
Meanwhile, there are sinister influences at work at the great chapter of Dominican Friers being held at Blackfriars. One friar has died in mysterious circumstances and another has disappeared. Sir John Cranston and Athelstan are called in to investiate....« less
I was thinking of abandoning this series, but this book convinced me otherwise. Fast paced and involving three different crime plots, I had a hard time putting it down. Now, if only Sir John Cranston didn't drink so much.