The Salisbury Manuscript

by Philip Gooden Book 1 in the Tom Ansell Cathedral Mysteries series.

First published 2008

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2.5(5)

Salisbury, 1873. London solicitor Tom Ansell is sent to collect a manuscript containing the private recollections of a cathedral canon. The document may damage a prominent family if released, while nearby antiquarian excavation has already encouraged secrecy, trespass and competition over objects taken from the ancient landscape.

A violent death places Tom under suspicion before he can return to London and his approaching marriage to Helen Scott. To clear his name, he must determine how the manuscript, a divided clerical family and the search for prehistoric remains are connected. Helen’s independent inquiries reveal that the respectable custodians of history may have the strongest reasons to suppress it.