Crispin Guest has fallen from knighthood to the margins of London after a conviction for treason, supporting himself as the Tracker: an investigator who finds missing property and uncovers other people’s secrets. Wealthy merchant Nicholas Walcote hires him to discover whether his young wife Philippa is unfaithful, but a domestic enquiry quickly opens into murder, concealed dealings and a coveted holy relic. Crispin must work through a world where his old status still attracts attention but no longer protects him, and where Sheriff Simon Wynchecombe is more obstacle than ally.
The novel is set in the early reign of Richard II, when London was still living with the political and social aftershocks of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Westerson uses the city’s sharp divisions of rank, guild wealth, household service and criminal jurisdiction to make Crispin’s disgrace materially important: he understands aristocratic behaviour but must earn money in the streets. The relic plot also reflects a culture in which sacred objects could carry devotional, financial and political value, allowing superstition and hard calculation to coexist within the same crime.
