1. The Unquiet Bones
In the mid-1360s Hugh de Singleton, a younger son trained as a clerk but drawn instead to surgery, has studied medicine in Paris and established himself at Oxford. When human bones are discovered in the cesspit of Bampton Castle, Lord Gilbert Talbot asks Hugh to determine…
2. A Corpse at St Andrew’s Chapel
Alan, the beadle of Bampton, vanishes after setting out at dusk to enforce the manor curfew. Two days later his mutilated body is found beside the track to St Andrew’s Chapel, his throat torn open and his face and hands deeply scratched. The coroner proposes a…
3. A Trail of Ink
Hugh returns to Oxford intending to pursue a very personal objective: winning the hand of Kate. Instead he is drawn into trouble when the books of Master John Wycliffe are stolen. Recovering valuable manuscripts is urgent enough, but the matter becomes darker when a poor scholar…
4. Unhallowed Ground
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…
5. The Tainted Coin
Bampton, autumn 1367. A badly beaten chapman is discovered beneath the porch of St Andrew’s Chapel and dies before he can explain who attacked him. When an old, corroded coin is found in his mouth, Hugh de Singleton suspects that the object is more than a…
6. Rest Not in Peace
In 1368 Sir Henry Burley arrives at Bampton Castle as a guest of Lord Gilbert Talbot. He asks Hugh de Singleton for a sleeping draught, then retires after an evening of music, conversation and dancing. By morning the apparently healthy knight is dead. Because Hugh supplied…
7. The Abbot’s Agreement
On the road towards Oxford, Hugh de Singleton notices crows feeding beneath an oak and discovers the body of a young Benedictine novice. The lad has been missing from a nearby abbey for four days, yet the corpse is disturbingly fresh and bears a stab wound…
8. Ashes to Ashes
When tenants collect wood ash to spread on their fields, they find human bones among the remains of a great fire. Hugh de Singleton learns that several men from Bampton and neighbouring villages have recently disappeared; most can be accounted for, but one missing bailiff cannot.…
9. Lucifer’s Harvest
In 1370 Lord Gilbert Talbot is required to provide men for Prince Edward’s campaign in France, and he orders Hugh de Singleton to accompany the force as surgeon. The journey takes Hugh away from Bampton and into the Black Prince’s war around Limoges. Among the English…
10. Deeds of Darkness
Hugh de Singleton is forced into another investigation when the Bampton coroner, an old friend, is murdered while travelling towards Oxford. The trail leads to a band of goliards: young men who have abandoned university study and turned to violence, robbery and intimidation. Hugh can identify…
11. Prince Edward’s Warrant
Autumn 1372. Edward, the Black Prince summons Hugh de Singleton to Kennington Palace because the illness Hugh treated during the French campaign has returned. While Hugh is in the prince’s household, Sir Giles—the knight who escorted him to London—collapses at dinner and dies from poison. Giles…
12. Without a Trace
Lady Philippa, wife of the knight Sir Aymer, is travelling with her maid in an enclosed wagon towards Bampton while her husband and his men ride alongside. When the party reaches Bampton Castle, both women have vanished from the vehicle. Because the disappearance may have occurred…
13. The Easter Sepulchre
During Holy Week at Bampton, the priest’s clerk Odo is entrusted with watching the Easter Sepulchre, where the Host and crucifix are kept between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. When the watch is found abandoned in the middle of the night and Odo cannot be located,…
14. Master Wycliffe’s Summons
Oxford, 1375. After a thunderstorm, scholar Richard Sabyn is found dead and is assumed to have been struck by lightning. Master John Wycliffe is unconvinced and summons Hugh de Singleton to examine the body. Hugh discovers that a death resembling a lightning strike could have been…
15. Suppression and Suspicion
Edmund Harkins is widely disliked in Bampton, so the discovery of his corpse in a shallow grave produces little public mourning. For Sir Hugh de Singleton, however, dislike is not evidence and popularity cannot determine whether a killing goes unpunished. His duty as bailiff requires him…
16. A Polluted Font
Bampton, 1377. Hugh and Kate bring their newborn son to church for baptism only to discover that the locked font is completely dry. A leak is ruled out, suggesting that someone deliberately removed the holy water. Before Hugh can understand why, Father Robert is found badly…
17. The Way of the Wicked
Kendrick Wroe is found dead in the frozen Shill Brook, and the immediate assumption is that he was poaching Lord Gilbert’s fish. Sir Hugh de Singleton finds reasons to doubt that simple explanation. When one of Kendrick’s friends is killed and another is forced to seek…