A Rustle of Silk

by Alys Clare Book 1 in the Gabriel Taverner Mysteries series.

First published 2016

Amazon

4.1(1,534)

Devon, 1603. Former ship’s surgeon Gabriel Taverner has left the sea after an injury and is trying to establish himself as a country physician. When Coroner Theophilus Davey asks him to examine a decomposed body found beside a river, Gabriel discovers a personal connection to the dead man and evidence that the apparent death requires much closer scrutiny.

The inquiry leads towards Plymouth and the profitable silk trade, while threatening secrets emerge within Gabriel’s own family circle. Set at the beginning of James I’s reign, the novel introduces a physician-detective whose medical training, experience at sea and insistence on physical evidence give him a distinctive way of investigating murder.