Chaucer and the Legend of Good Women

by Philip Gooden Book 2 in the Geoffrey Chaucer Mysteries series.

First published 2005

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Florence, 1373. Geoffrey Chaucer is sent to negotiate a loan from the banking house of Antonio Lipari, whose money could support Edward III’s war in France. Florence is richer and larger than London, but its commercial strength depends on family alliances and political rivalries that make an English request for credit dangerous.

Lipari is murdered soon after Chaucer arrives, leaving the diplomat to follow financial records, household secrets and competing claims to the bank’s future. In London, Philippa Chaucer uncovers a threat involving her sister Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, connecting the Florentine investigation to the private relationships sustaining English royal power.