The Clerk’s Tale

by M. J. Trow Book 3 in the Geoffrey Chaucer Mysteries series.

First published 2022

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4.3(112)

Geoffrey Chaucer is sent to Oxford after the suspicious death of a young student, entering a university world shaped by rival colleges, scholastic argument and fierce competition for reputation. What begins as a request to clarify one death soon exposes conflicts over philosophy, religion and personal ambition, while Chaucer’s position as a royal servant gives him access without making him welcome among scholars determined to protect their own.

As further deaths follow, Chaucer must distinguish intellectual rivalry from motives dangerous enough to kill. His investigation moves through halls, lodgings and taverns, drawing him into the everyday disorder of medieval Oxford as well as its learned disputes. The case tests the observational instincts that have served him at court and on the road, forcing him to discover what lies behind the respectable forms of university life.