Litany of Lies

by Sarah Hawkswood Book 12 in the Bradecote & Catchpoll series.

First published 2024

Amazon

4.5(1,319)

Midsummer 1145. Walter, steward of Evesham Abbey, is found dead at the bottom of a well pit. The abbot’s difficult relationship with the Sheriff of Worcestershire makes the arrival of Bradecote, Catchpoll and Walkelin politically unwelcome, but the evidence excludes an accidental fall.

The investigators enter a community divided by the steward’s abuses, monastic authority and hostility between the abbey and the local castle guard. Testimony repeatedly serves institutional interests rather than truth, and another killing forces the inquiry into the conflict between those who possess power and those who endure it. The case turns on which lies protect a murderer and which have been used merely to survive.