The Tainted Relic

Name: The Tainted Relic
Rating: 3.77 (1441 reviews)

by Susanna Gregory, Michael Jecks, Bernard Knight, Ian Morson, Philip Gooden Book 1 in the Medieval Murderers series.

First published 2005

Amazon

3.8(1,441)

In Jerusalem in 1100, an English knight receives a bloodstained fragment said to come from the True Cross. The relic acquires a reputation for bringing violent death, and its later appearance in England draws Crowner John into the murder of a dealer carrying it toward Glastonbury.

Successive stories follow the object through Oxford, Exeter, Cambridge and London, where investigators from the contributors’ series confront new owners and new crimes. Each episode reveals another attempt to exploit the relic’s spiritual authority or supposed curse, carrying the same contested object across several centuries.