In the summer of 1312 the killing of Peter Gaveston, favourite of Edward II, deepens the conflict between the king and the English barons. Hugh Corbett travels to the Dominican priory at Blackfriars, where Gaveston’s body awaits burial, and finds the religious house already disturbed by a sequence of macabre deaths. The murders suggest that political enemies are using the funeral and the capital’s uncertainty for a wider purpose.
At the same time, reports warn that the pirate vessels of the Black Banner Fleet intend to enter the Thames and weaken royal control of London. Corbett must determine whether the killings inside the priory are connected to the threatened attack and to the factions competing over Gaveston’s legacy. The case places a murder investigation inside the immediate crisis of Edward II’s divided reign.
David Field
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Philippa Gregory
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Christian Cameron
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Paul Bannister
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