Stanton and Barling Mysteries

The Stanton and Barling Mysteries follow Aelred Barling, a severe and scholarly clerk to Henry II’s royal justices, and Hugo Stanton, the younger messenger whose ease with people offsets his superior’s formality. Beginning in Yorkshire in 1176, their investigations show how the expanding machinery of royal law operates among manor courts, monasteries and communities that retain their own loyalties and methods of judgment.

The first three novels move from a village murder to killings inside an isolated abbey and then to Canterbury Cathedral during its reconstruction after fire. Each case is complete, while the relationship between the investigators deepens as Barling’s legal reasoning and Stanton’s social intelligence become mutually dependent. The series remains rooted in Henry II’s reign and, at Canterbury, in the unresolved religious and political legacy of Thomas Becket.