1. The Nightingale Gallery
London, 1377. The deaths of the Black Prince and Edward III leave the crown to the young Richard II, while great nobles, churchmen and wealthy merchants compete for influence around the new regime. In this unsettled atmosphere, the prosperous merchant Sir Thomas Springall is murdered inside…
2. The House of the Red Slayer
London, December 1377. A severe frost has frozen the Thames when Sir Ralph Whitton, Constable of the Tower of London, is found murdered inside a locked chamber. Trusted retainers guarded the door, yet there is no obvious route by which the killer could have entered or…
3. Murder Most Holy
London, 1379. Sir John Cranston is challenged by Signor Gian Galeazzo, lord of an Italian manor where men have repeatedly been found dead inside a locked scarlet chamber. The bodies carry no obvious wounds or traces of poison, no secret entrance can be found and every…
4. The Anger of God
Autumn 1379. England is governed in the young Richard II’s name by John of Gaunt, while French attacks, heavy taxation and growing peasant unrest place the kingdom under severe strain. A mysterious rebel organiser calling himself Ira Dei—the Anger of God—is helping turn political resentment into…
6. The House of Crows
Brother Athelstan and coroner Sir John Cranston investigate a killing that reaches into the political and commercial life of Richard II’s London. The trail leads among powerful men whose public loyalties conceal private fears, while unrest in the city makes every accusation more dangerous. Athelstan’s knowledge…
7. The Assassin’s Riddle
London, summer 1380. A clerk is pulled from the Thames after being struck on the head and drowned. Soon afterwards the moneylender Bartholomew Drayton is found dead inside his barred strongroom, killed by a crossbow bolt despite there being no apparent way for the murderer to…
8. The Devil’s Domain
London, summer 1380. A French captain held at Hawkmere Manor—the gloomy house known as the Devil’s Domain—is murdered while in the custody of John of Gaunt. The manor contains prisoners captured during the fighting between England and France, making every death there potentially both a criminal…
9. The Field of Blood
Brother Athelstan is drawn into another murder in the tense London of Richard II, where fear of rebellion and factional politics run beneath everyday life. A violent death leads him through the city’s streets and households while Sir John Cranston pursues the official investigation. The mystery…
10. The House of Shadows
Autumn 1380. Brother Athelstan and his Southwark parish are preparing for their Christmas mystery play when two young women are murdered at a local tavern. Their deaths begin a sequence of killings around St Erconwald’s, drawing Athelstan and Sir John Cranston into a case involving thieves,…
14. The Book of Fires
London, February 1381. A killer known as the Ignifer, or Fire Bringer, is burning his victims alive and appears to be targeting people connected with the recent conviction of Lady Isolda Beaumont. Her husband’s death had led to her own execution, but the violence continuing after…
15. The Herald of Hell
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…
16. The Great Revolt
June 1381. Rebel forces are gathering outside London as anger over taxation, lordship and royal government moves towards open revolt. John of Gaunt is away from the capital and the young Richard II is exposed to a political crisis that threatens both Crown and Church. Brother…
17. A Pilgrimage to Murder
Summer, 1381. In the aftermath of the crushed Peasants’ Revolt, Brother Athelstan is preparing to lead his parishioners on pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket when he is summoned to a Cheapside house where three people have been murdered. One victim is a senior clerk…
21. The Hanging Tree
London, January 1382. A large quantity of gold and silver is stolen from the Crown’s supposedly secure treasury, and the five clerks guarding it are found garrotted. Brother Athelstan and Sir John Cranston are ordered to discover how the chamber was breached and who could have…
22. Murder Most Treasonable
London, March 1382. Two clerks belonging to John of Gaunt's secret intelligence organisation die in circumstances that suggest carefully planned assassination. Brother Athelstan is summoned to investigate how a killer could pass through locked doors without leaving an obvious route of escape. The deaths become more…
23. Murder’s Snare
In 1358, the mercenary Free Company known as the Via Crucis destroys the Norman village of Avranches, leaving behind a legacy of violence that has not been forgotten. More than twenty years later, Brother Athelstan is called into a series of killings in London, some carried…
24. The Meadows of Murder
London, 1383. William, a weaver accused of killing a hated moneylender, bursts into Brother Athelstan’s church seeking sanctuary. A short time later William himself is found dead inside the locked church, leaving Athelstan with an apparently impossible murder and the question of who wanted revenge for…