Hostage to Fortune

by Sarah Hawkswood Book 4 in the Bradecote & Catchpoll series.

First published 2019

Amazon

4.4(1,939)

January 1144. Christina, Hugh Bradecote’s betrothed, leaves on pilgrimage to the shrine of St Edgyth at Polesworth under the protection of an archiepiscopal envoy and his monks. A renegade captures the party and demands the release of a forger held by the sheriff. His hatred of Benedictines and willingness to kill turn an exchange of prisoners into a race against time.

Bradecote and Catchpoll pursue the captors through an exceptionally hard winter, crossing a landscape immobilised by snow and a frozen River Severn. Bradecote’s fear for Christina threatens his judgement, while the sheriff’s impatience reduces the time available for negotiation. Rescue depends on reading the hostage-taker’s grievances before he carries out the violence on which his authority rests.