Chaucer and the Vintry Ward Death

by Philip Gooden Book 4 in the Geoffrey Chaucer Mysteries series.

First published 2014

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3.9(376)

London, 1359. The young Geoffrey Chaucer is serving in the household of Lionel of Antwerp and preparing to travel to France when he returns to his family’s wine business in Vintry Ward. His father is seriously ill and the firm has fallen under the control of Nicholas Lombard, a man whose influence is resented but poorly understood.

Lombard is killed in circumstances the authorities appear determined to suppress. Chaucer investigates the merchants, taverns and riverside contacts of his childhood while a story heard at the Tabard Inn begins to echo the real search for a murderer. The case links household loyalty to the commercial machinery supporting Edward III’s war.