Servant of Death

Name: Servant of Death
Rating: 4.15 (3389 reviews)

by Sarah Hawkswood Book 1 in the Bradecote & Catchpoll series.

First published 2014

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4.2(3,389)

Worcestershire, June 1143. Eudo, the feared clerk of Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester, is found bludgeoned to death inside Pershore Abbey and arranged before the altar like a penitent. His duties, arrogance and access to power have given monks, servants and visitors reasons to resent him, while the enclosed abbey sharply limits the number of people who could have committed the crime.

Serjeant Catchpoll is required to work with Hugh Bradecote, the sheriff’s newly appointed undersheriff, whose rank and analytical manner initially irritate the experienced investigator. Their questioning exposes debts, concealed loyalties and private grievances intensified by the civil war outside the monastery walls. The murder becomes the beginning of an uneasy investigative partnership in which local knowledge and formal authority must learn to work together while the Anarchy continues to unsettle Worcestershire.