Thomas atte Bridge is found hanging from a tree near Cowleys Corner, and almost everyone is prepared to accept suicide. Hugh de Singleton and Kate are less certain. Thomas had made enemies throughout Bampton, and Hugh soon discovers signs that someone may have arranged the death to look self-inflicted. Suspicion first turns towards the disgraced priest John Kellet, Thomas’s former accomplice, but when Hugh travels to Exeter he finds a broken man whose circumstances make the easy solution increasingly doubtful.
Hugh’s problem is not simply identifying a killer. As Lord Gilbert’s bailiff he is responsible for justice, yet many villagers have good reason to feel relief rather than grief at Thomas’s death. The novel explores the uncomfortable gap between communal judgement and legal obligation in a fourteenth-century manor. Travel between Bampton and Exeter also broadens the series beyond Oxfordshire, showing how church appointments, local reputation and the limited reach of information could complicate an investigation during Edward III’s reign.
