Sword of Shame

Name: Sword of Shame
Rating: 3.88 (655 reviews)

by Susanna Gregory, Michael Jecks, Bernard Knight, Ian Morson, Philip Gooden Book 2 in the Medieval Murderers series.

First published 2006

Amazon

3.9(655)

A remarkable sword is forged in Anglo-Saxon England, but treachery surrounds its creation and gives the weapon a legacy of dishonour. As ownership changes, the sword becomes evidence of status, violence and unresolved crime.

Successive stories carry the weapon through different periods, where its history is forgotten, rediscovered or deliberately falsified. The collection examines the human motives attached to a prestigious artefact, showing how pride and shame can survive long after the original bloodshed has passed out of memory.

The shared object gives the anthology a long historical perspective unusual in a conventional mystery. Each generation interprets the sword according to the evidence and prejudices available to it, allowing the same artefact to acquire contradictory meanings. The structure turns provenance itself into a mystery and shows how material objects can preserve traces of violence after written explanations have disappeared.