Medieval Historical Fiction Mystery

As a bard's daughter, Gwen has spent her life traveling from castle to castle and village to village with her family, following the music. In the winter of 1141, Gwen's family is contracted to provide the entertainment for the coming-of-age celebration of a lord's son. But before the celebration can begin, Gwen's father is found over the body of his friend, with a harp string as the murder weapon and blood on his hands. With the lord of the castle uninterested in finding the true killer, it is up to Gwen to clear her father's name before her father's music is silenced...forever.

January, 1145. Godfrey Bowyer, the best but least likeable bow maker in Worcester, dies an agonising death by poisoning. Although similarly struck down after the same meal, his wife, Blanche, survives. The number of people who could have administered the poison should mean a very short investigation for the sheriff’s men, Hugh Bradecote, Serjeant Catchpoll and Underserjeant Walkelin, but perhaps someone was pulling the strings, and that widens the net considerably.

Sir Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the Secret Seal, hastens to the Dominican Priory at Blackfriars where Gaveston's corpse awaits burial. But, on arrival, Corbett discovers that a series of macabre murders has turned the priory into a mansion of death, and a killer is roaming free. Meanwhile, rumours spread that the pirate ships of the Black Banner Fleet are intent on entering the River Thames and, if the Sea Beggars succeed in their mission, they will weaken the king's power throughout the city.

After losing his knighthood, Crispin Guest has found a new calling as the Tracker, a private investigator who can locate anything—or anyone. Now famed French alchemist Nicholas Flamel needs Crispin to locate his wife, Perenelle, and his apprentice, Thomas Cornhill. But the case takes a sinister turn when Flamel's apprentice is found murdered. The kidnapper promises that Flamel's wife will be next...unless he hands over his precious Philosopher's Stone, a magical object that can turn lead into gold.

1266. Eleanor of Castile, adored wife of the Crown Prince of England, is still only a princess when she is held hostage in the brutal Baron's Rebellion and her baby daughter dies. Scarred by privation, a bitter Eleanor swears revenge on those who would harm her family - and vows never to let herself be vulnerable again. As she rises to become queen, Eleanor keeps Olwen - a trusted herbalist, who tried to save her daughter - by her side. But it is dangerous to be friendless in a royal household.

As the winter of 1323 descends upon a windswept chapel on the edge of Dartmoor, who could blame the young priest, Father Mark, for seeking affection from Mary, the miller's daughter? But when Mary, and her unborn child, are found dead, Mark is the obvious suspect. Called to investigate, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock soon begin to have their doubts. Could one of Mary's many admirers have murdered her in a fit of jealousy? Or might it be someone even closer to home?

England, 1191. King Richard is half a world away, fighting for God and his own ambition. Back home, his country languishes, bankrupt and on the verge of anarchy. People with power are running unchecked. People without are growing angry. And in Nottingham, one of the largest shires in England, the sheriff seems intent on doing nothing about it. As the leaves turn gold in the Sherwood Forest, the lives of six people - become intertwined. And a strange story begins to spread....

Edmund Harkins has gone missing. Few in Bampton liked him, knowing him to be a wife-beater and distinctly unsavory character, so when some hungry pigs unearth his corpse from a shallow grave, there is hardly an outpouring of grief. As bailiff, it is Hugh de Singleton’s duty to bring Edmund’s killer to justice. But where is he to start investigating when almost everyone in the village has a motive? And when everyone is pleased to see the scoundrel dead, who knows how far they might go to help someone get away with murder?

In the dilapidated surroundings of the Savoy hospital, a delegation from the Netherlands has gathered for a final attempt to secure peace between the two nations. Thomas Chaloner, active in Holland during Cromwell's time, knows many of the delegates, including the sister of his late wife. Then the body of his former brother-in-law is found in the Thames. Chaloner discovers that the dead man has left enigmatic clues to a motivation for his murder.

Hiding from a cadaverous stalker in 1046 England, Thorston races to unleash the magical charms from the diabolical Book Without Words. Suddenly, with success almost in his grasp, he slumps to the floor, muttering cryptic words. Newbery Award-winning author Avi adds this jewel to his many literary gems.

Bermondsey Priory, 1114. A young chaplain succumbs to the temptations of the flesh - and suffers a gruesome punishment. From that moment, the monastery is cursed and over the next five hundred years murder and treachery abound within its hallowed walls. A beautiful young bride found dead two days before her wedding. A ghostly figure that warns of impending doom. A plot to depose King Edward II.

Summer 1381. The Great Revolt has been crushed. Brother Athelstan, meanwhile, is preparing for a pilgrimage to St Thomas Becket's shrine in Canterbury to give thanks for the well-being of his congregation after the violent rebellion. But preparations are disrupted when Athelstan is summoned to the scene of a brutal triple murder.

In the spring of 1348, tales begin of poisonous clouds fast approaching, which have overwhelmed whole cities, with scarcely a human being left. While some pray earnestly, there are those who hope that God's wrath might be averted by pilgrimage. When a group of pilgrims are forced to shelter at an inn, their host encourages them to tell their stories of sin, so that it might emerge which one is the best. And the worst...

May 1144. Newly wedded, Gareth and Gwen travel across the border into England on a diplomatic mission with Prince Hywel of Wales. Within moments of their arrival, however, the mission goes awry and a murder case drops (literally) at their feet. Hindered at every turn by a climate of civil war and constantly shifting political alliances, Gareth and Gwen race to solve the murder and expose a plot that threatens not only their lives, but the life of the future king of England himself.

Politics, religion, and international intrigue paint a gripping portrait of England in the months prior to the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, but in a book where there are no pure ideals, perfect heroes, or irredeemable villains, history becomes personal. Schism splits the Catholic Church, a teenaged king sits on England’s throne, John Wycliffe protests, Piers Plowman complains, Geoffrey Chaucer tells tales.

Former knight Crispin Guest is now known in the streets of medieval London as the Tracker—an investigator who can find anything and anyone. What begins as a straightforward case of murder turns complicated when Crispin realizes that the victim was an important courier in possession of a holy artifact—an object so valuable that its absence could start a war between France and England. Surrounded by possible suspects, Guest will have to use his wiles to navigate both the exclusive halls of King Richard's court and the hardscrabble streets of fourteenth-century London.

In the aftermath of Prince Rhun's death, King Owain and King Madog agreed their children should marry as a way to seal the peace between them. Two years later, the wedding date has finally arrived, though relations between the two kingdoms have improved only to the extent that they aren't actually at war.

April 1150. War has come yet again to Ceredigion, and Prince Hywel marches south alongside his wily uncle, preparing to battle his own cousins. Meanwhile, Gareth and Gwen learn of murder and treachery among the Hospitallers, who are succoring the ill and wounded within the army. As they investigate, even in the midst of war, they uncover not only murder, but treason and betrayal as well—and inadvertently set the stage for that long-awaited final reckoning within King Owain’s court.

When a corpse turns up at his favorite tavern, Crispin Guest-disgraced knight turned detective - begins an inquiry, but the dead man turns out to be a Templar knight, an order thought to be extinct for 75 years, charged with protecting a certain religious relic which is now missing. Before he can begin to investigate, Crispin is abducted by shadowy men who are said to be minions of the French anti-pope.

It is the winter of 1143 and all is not well in the court of Owain, King of north Wales: his future in-laws are untrustworthy; the Norman lords on his eastern border are restless; and among his wedding guests lurks a cold-blooded killer. Gareth and Gwen have marriage plans of their own, but their love will have to wait while the pair race to separate truth from lies, friends from foes, and unravel the mystery before King Owain--and his new bride--fall victim to their uninvited guest.