London, 1392. Disturbed graves and rumours of walking corpses terrify the parish around St Modwen’s Church, prompting Father Bulthius to ask Crispin Guest for help. At the same time Philippa Walcote, Crispin’s former lover, sends an urgent appeal: her seven-year-old son Christopher has been accused of murder and of trying to steal the missing relic of St Modwen. Crispin and Jack must connect apparent supernatural disturbances, a vanished sacred object and a child who may be condemned if they cannot establish what really happened.
The case is rooted in a medieval culture in which saints, relics and the restless dead could form part of ordinary religious imagination without making every reported marvel literally true. Parish churches were social as well as devotional centres, and burial space, family memory and relic ownership all carried significance. Westerson lets Crispin respect those beliefs while testing physical evidence and human motive, creating a mystery in which fear of the dead becomes useful cover for the living during the reign of Richard II.
