Medieval Mystery Fiction

Salisbury, 1226. A mysterious poacher claims to be a long-lost heir - to a man found crushed by his own cart wheel. Ela Longespée is determined to find the truth, even though the king has coldly appointed another sheriff in her place. Ela takes pity on the man - an injured knight who once saved her husband’s life - and convinces the sheriff to release him from jail while she investigates. Will it turn out to be a deadly mistake?

King Charles of France has announced that he is confiscating Aquitaine, and Prince Edward has sent for knights and men at arms from England to assist him in opposing the French king. Lord Gilbert Talbot is required to provide five knights, 12 squires, and 20 archers and men at arms, and wishes his surgeon - Hugh de Singleton - to travel with the party, while Hugh’s wife Kate oversees the castle. Among the party will be Sir Simon Trillowe, Hugh’s old nemesis and Kate’s former suitor, who had once set fire to Hugh’s house.

It is the autumn of 1278. The harvest is in. The air is crisp. Dusty summer breathes a last sigh before the dark seasons arrive. For Prioress Eleanor, dark times arrive early in Norfolk. The head of her order, Abbess Isabeau, has sent Father Etienne Davoir from their headquarters in France to inspect all aspects of Tyndal Priory, from its morals to its roofs. Surely the abbess would not have chosen her own brother for this rare and thorough investigation unless the cause was serious and she had reason to fear intervention from Rome.

When assassin Rafe Fletcher returns home to London, he can’t help falling for his brother’s woman. For a man looking for redemption, it’s the last thing he wants. Lizzie Croft has feared her friend’s brooding brother for years. She remembers him as cold, calculating and dangerous, the very last man she needs in her life. The very last man she can trust. But trust him she must when she becomes the prime suspect in a murder.

After enduring years of her nobleman father's cruelty and abuse, Celestina Lunde is ready to take her own life rather than enter into an arranged marriage with an equally brutal man. But just when she is about to leap through the window of her tower bedroom, a brawny Highland warrior arrives at her home and changes everything.

In March 1279, Edward I takes a break from hammering the Welsh and bearing down on England's Jews to vacation in Gloucestershire. The royal party breaks the journey at Woodstock Manor. There, one life begins as the queen gives birth to a daughter, and one draws to an end as apoplexy fells Baron Adam Wynethorpe. Hastening to the baron's deathbed is his eldest son, Hugh, a veteran of Edward's Crusades who can't shake off the battle horrors he has witnessed.

A violent encounter at a tournament thrusts Ela into a tug of war over an ancient manor. A young knight wants to wrest the family estates from his mother and Ela finds her own roles as countess and castellan challenged as accusations of murder ring in the air.

Salisbury, 1226. A young pregnant woman is found tangled in reeds in the river Avon, her identity a mystery. Grieving widow Ela Longespée is determined to succeed her husband as sheriff of Salisbury, and quickly takes charge of the investigation. She soon finds herself in the thick of a neighborhood scandal and a struggle to maintain her authority. With multiple suspects, can she identify the true killer?

Late December, 1389. Ordered to undertake a grueling three-day journey to bleak Whitby Abbey in the Far North of England in a bid to purchase the Abbey's priceless holy relic - a lock of St. Hild's hair, said to be 700 years old - Hildegard of Meaux and her three companion monks arrive to find the abbey a decidedly unwelcoming place, a place of strange customs and practices very different from their modest lifestyle at Meaux. Nor, as Hildegard discovers, is she the only visitor intent on acquiring the relic.

Master Hugh, Kate, and their children attend the Midsummer’s Eve fire. Early next morning, Hugh hears the passing bell ring from the Church of St. Beornwald and moments later is summoned. Tenants collecting the ashes to spread upon their fields have found burned bones. Master Hugh learns of several men of Bampton and nearby villages who have gone missing recently. Most are soon found, some alive, some dead. Master Hugh eventually learns that the bones are those of a bailiff from a nearby manor. Someone has slain him and placed his body in the fire to destroy evidence of murder.

National best-selling author Ariana Franklin resumes her Mistress of the Art of Death series with A Murderous Procession. In 1176, King Henry II’s daughter is set to marry the king of Sicily. But when several wedding guests are murdered during the procession, Adelia must uncover who is behind the killings and who is the killer’s real target.

Rome 998 AD. Galen and his friends have taken shelter in an abbey where there is much to learn from the local scribes and illustrators. Galen is grateful for the order and tranquillity of their temporary new home, but is it a false peace?

This series features a real historical figure—the formidable Ela Longespée. The young Countess of Salisbury was chosen to marry King Henry II’s illegitimate son William. After her husband’s untimely death, Ela served as high sheriff of Wiltshire, castellan of Salisbury Castle, and ultimately founder and abbess of Lacock Abbey.

When the woodcutter's only daughter is murdered, the bailiff tries to arrest Bertwoin the Plowman, who flees to a master alchemist and his professional virgin, Flowia, for help. Bertwoin must find the brutal killer while the grieving woodcutter, the relentless bailiff, and righteous monks pursue him. His search for clues takes him to the corpse room inside an abbey, to a torture pit near the Devil’s Doorstep, and to the accursed home of a heretic priest.

There are plots to invade England and Normandy. There are assassination attempts and the only man who can stop all of these is the Earl of Cleveland. Moving from Scotland to Normandy and back again this is a fast moving novel set in the months before the civil war in England and Normandy begins.

Students of biblical Greek will learn all New Testament Greek vocabulary words that occur 10 times or more in the New Testament by interacting with this audio product. Jonathan Pennington speaks all New Testament Greek words in descending order of frequency. Different tracks enable students to concentrate on different word groupings.

Salisbury 1226. When a child of village outcasts disappears from Salisbury, the odious new sheriff doesn’t seem to care. Ela Longespée is determined to help the girl’s desperate parents and her investigation leads her into the thick of a human-trafficking ring in London. There, she vows to find the lost child, arrest the perpetrators, and convince the king to make her high sheriff of Wiltshire.

Salisbury 1227: Ela Longespée’s friend Alice de Gilbert bemoans her barren and loveless marriage, but Ela counsels her to remain faithful. When Alice’s husband is found dead, Ela must prove her friend’s innocence—or try her for murder.

Ela Longespée, High Sheriff of Wiltshire, sets out to find the killer of a man found dead inside the nearby circle of ancient stones. Except that the victim is later seen walking in Salisbury and claims to have risen from the dead. He ingratiates himself with the people of Salisbury, and even the bishop, but Ela suspects the man is a charlatan and a murderer. Can she learn the truth when even the jury thinks he's a living saint?

A plowman who fails to prevent a murder. A corpse stolen while a priest prays over it. A clever killer who must be caught in three days. Cathar country, (now southern France), late autumn in the year 1200. The alchemist sends Bertwoin to work in the château’s kitchen to prevent the murder of the visconte’s son. Bertwoin fails. And before the alchemist can examine the corpse for clues, the killer commits the impossible crime of stealing the body while a priest keeps vigil over it.