Book
Hostage to Fortune
Book 4 in the Bradecote & Catchpoll series.
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January 1144. Christina, Hugh Bradecote’s betrothed, leaves on pilgrimage to the shrine of St Edgyth at Polesworth under the protection of an archiepiscopal envoy and his monks. A renegade captures the party and demands the release of a forger held by the sheriff. His hatred of Benedictines and willingness to kill turn an exchange of prisoners into a race against time.
Bradecote and Catchpoll pursue the captors through an exceptionally hard winter, crossing a landscape immobilised by snow and a frozen River Severn. Bradecote’s fear for Christina threatens his judgement, while the sheriff’s impatience reduces the time available for negotiation. Rescue depends on reading the hostage-taker’s grievances before he carries out the violence on which his authority rests.
