Crowner John Mystery

Sir John de Wolfe tackles his most disturbing and intriguing investigation to dateAaron of Salisbury a Jewish money-lender who was well known locally, has been found dead, his head enveloped in a brown leather money-bag, the pull strings pulled tight around his neck. The crabbed handwriting on a scrap of folded parchment clutched in the dead mans fingers is deciphered as a quotation from the Gospel according to St Mark.

A Crowner John medieval mystery set in 12th century Devon, England. June 1195. A tall, brown mare gallops into the sleepy village of Sigford, dragging its rider by the stirrup, the broken shaft of an arrow protruding from his back. The embroidered badge sewn on the dead man's tunic identifies him as a senior officer of the Royal Forest. With the victim's purse still full of money, the motive for the murder is a mystery. But when a second forest officer is violently attacked, the county coroner, Sir John de Wolfe, begin to uncover evidence of a sinister conspiracy.

Exeter, 1195. When a prominent burgess and guild-master falls dead across his horse, Crowner John declines to hold an inquest as the man had been complaining of chest pains and shows no signs of injury. Events take a sinister turn, however, when a straw-dolly is discovered hidden under the man's saddle, a spike driven through its heart. The victim's wife declares her husband's death to have been the result of an evil spell, cast at the behest of a rival mill-owner. Enlisting the help of her cousin, a cathedral canon with an eye to ecclesiastical advancement, the widow begins a campaign in the name of the Church against witchcraft and the so-called 'cunning women' who practise it. This escalates until Exeter is divided into two camps and a climate of fear predominates. Still the coroner refuses to get involved - until his beloved mistress is accused of witchcraft. Can Crowner John unearth the real culprit and save Nesta from the hangman's noose?

October, 1195. High-spirited young knights, drunken squires, pickpockets and horse thieves are pouring into Exeter for a one-day jousting tournament. During the tournament there's a serious altercation between Hugo Peverel, and Reginald de Charterai. When, two days later, Sir Hugo's body is found in a barn on his estate, de Charterai would seem the obvious culprit. But there's no shortage of people who wished the hated Hugo dead. All three of his brothers have a motive; as do his stepmother and his young widow. The manor reeve, Warin Fishacre, had his own reasons to loathe his lord and master. With so many suspects, Sir John de Wolfe, the county coroner, hardly knows where to begin.

1195. Prince John still plots to seize the throne from his brother, Richard the Lionheart--and in his wicked schemes, he is supported by Philip of France. The French king offers to help John financially by sending him a mysterious alchemist, a Mohammedan named Nizam, who claims to be able to turn base materials into gold. But the ship that was transporting Nizam and his retainers is found wrecked off the south Devon coast, its crew savagely slaughtered. Shortly afterward, a Norman knight named Peter le Calve is foully murdered, his severed head stuck on the rood screen of Exeter cathedral. It's up to Sir John de Wolfe, the county coroner, to find a motive and connection between the killings. And just what is his unscrupulous brother-in-law, the disgraced ex-sheriff and Prince John-sympathizer, Richard de Revelle, trying to hide?

Exeter, 1195. During renovations at the new school in Smythen Street, funded by Crowner John's brother-in-law Richard de Revelle, a semi-skeletalized body is found in the loft of an outhouse. The coroner is called in to investigate. When the dead man is identified as the missing treasurer of the guild of Cordwainers, de Revelle immediately puts the blame on a young outlaw-a Cornish knight named Nicholas de Arundell-whose Devon manor de Revelle had illegally appropriated while Arundell was away at the Crusades. The ex-sheriff claims the body was dumped there to discredit his new school. The investigation takes on greater urgency when another guild-master is found dead on the road from Tavistock to Exeter. Is Nicholas de Arundell, the "noble outlaw," really responsible? Or could there be another culprit entirely?

When an unidentified body is discovered in the harbour town of Axmouth, twenty miles from Exeter, Sir John de Wolfe, the county coroner is called to investigate. The manner of the young man's death is a matter of some dispute - but, as Sir John soon discovers, it was no accident. The victim did not drown, as the manor reeve alleges, but was strangled to death. In the ensuing murder investigation, Sir John is frustrated by what appears to be a conspiracy of silence among the seamen and townsfolk. Just what is the local population trying to hide? As Crowner John is to learn, there are those who would go to any length to ensure the shocking truth remains hidden. And the coroner must draw on all his resources of courage, cunning and determination if he is to escape from Axmouth with his life.

Cardiff-based Professor Knight, CBE, became a Home Office pathologist in 1965. During his 40-year career, he performed over 25,000 autopsies and was involved in many high-profile cases. The author of numerous non-fiction books, he has written fourteen novels in the Crowner John mystery series. Visit www.bernardknight.homestead.com

How a humble Devon knight became a king's coroner: the thrilling prequel to the perennially popular Crowner John medieval mystery series. 1192. Returning from the Holy Land at the end of the Third Crusade with Richard the Lionheart, King of England, Sir John de Wolfe, a Devon knight, finds England simmering with rebellion. Discovering a body washed up on the shores of the River Exe, its throat cut, Sir John deduces that he was a king's courier. Tasked by Hubert Walter, the Chief Justiciar, to find out why the man died and who killed him, Sir John de Wolfe finds himself drawn unwillingly into affairs of state. His new career as a king's coroner is about to begin . . .