Hugh de Singleton is forced into another investigation when the Bampton coroner, an old friend, is murdered while travelling towards Oxford. The trail leads to a band of goliards: young men who have abandoned university study and turned to violence, robbery and intimidation. Hugh can identify the danger they present, but arresting them is another matter because some enjoy the protection of men whose rank and influence stand well above his own.
The mystery draws on the unruly edges of medieval university life, where scholars were numerous, mobile and sometimes difficult for civic or ecclesiastical authorities to control. Hugh’s task exposes the unequal operation of justice in Edward III’s England: evidence against ordinary offenders may be enough, while offenders protected by patrons can be almost untouchable. Oxford’s proximity to Bampton gives the story a setting in which academic privilege, local law and aristocratic power overlap, making the investigation as much about who can be held accountable as about who committed the killing.
