Gilbert de Rideford, a Templar known to John from the crusade, arrives in Devon claiming to possess information that could damage the military order and shake Christian authority. Pursued by men determined to silence him, Gilbert asks John to help him escape before the secret is recovered.
The trail carries John from Exeter into a struggle involving churchmen, royal interests and the pirates occupying Lundy Island. To discover why Gilbert is being hunted, he must survive a dangerous mission across the Bristol Channel and decide whether the alleged revelation is genuine, heretical or a weapon in a political contest.
The Templar connection gives the secret unusual political force because the order is simultaneously military, religious and international. A claim capable of damaging its reputation could affect patrons and churchmen far beyond Devon. Lundy’s pirates add a separate form of lawlessness, allowing the investigation to move from royal justice on land to a maritime refuge where ordinary authority is difficult to enforce.
Elizabeth Chadwick
26 books
Cecelia Holland
20 books
Angus Donald
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David Field
46 books