London, May 1381. With revolt approaching, rebel messengers move openly through the capital and a mysterious figure known as the Herald of Hell spreads fear among the government’s supporters. When a chancery clerk employed by John of Gaunt’s ruthless intelligence chief Thibault is found hanged in a Southwark brothel, Brother Athelstan is drawn into the case.
The dead clerk had been trying to decipher a manuscript containing coded information. Athelstan suspects that the cipher may reveal how rebel messages are being transmitted and who stands behind the Herald. His investigation takes place in a city already close to insurrection, where criminal murder, espionage and political resistance use the same streets and where solving the code may be the only way to prevent further deaths.
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