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    Poisoned Chalice, The
    Unavailable
    Poisoned Chalice, The
    Unavailable
    Poisoned Chalice, The
    Ebook355 pages7 hours

    Poisoned Chalice, The

    By Bernard Knight

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Coroner Sir John investigates a series of attacks on wealthy women in this tense, pacey instalment in the Crowner John medieval mystery series, set in twelfth-century England.

    1194. The well-born ladies of Exeter are under attack. First, Christina Rifford, the daughter of a rich merchant, is raped. Then, just months before her marriage, Lady Adele de Courcy is found dead in one of the poorest areas of the city. The common factor is Godfrey Fitzosbern, the local silversmith.

    Despite his own suspicions, county coroner Sir John de Wolfe is determined to protect Godfrey from the women’s vengeful families. Until, that is, he can find proof of the man’s guilt. Aided by his mistress Nesta, and hindered by his social-climbing wife Matilda and her power-hungry brother, Sheriff Richard de Revelle, John slowly begins to put the pieces together. But a final, brutal act of violence makes John question everything he’s discovered so far . . .
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSevern House Publishers
    Release dateFeb 1, 2014
    ISBN9781448301249
    Unavailable
    Poisoned Chalice, The
    Author

    Bernard Knight

    Bernard Knight is a retired Home Office pathologist renowned for his work on such high-profile cases as the Fred and Rosemary West murders. Bernard is the author of the ‘Crowner John’ series, as well as the Dr Richard Pryor forensic mystery series.

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    Reviews for Poisoned Chalice, The

    3.5/5

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    • 5/5
      A general review of this series:This is back in the good old days of law enforcement, when trial by combat was definitive and would-be plea bargainers had to fight their accomplice(s) to the death.I find these books fascinating as living history, perhaps even more than as mysteries. Knight always starts off with a glossary of terms. The period is not romanticized, but neither is it overly repulsive. Sir John de Wolfe went crusading with Richard the Lionheart. Now back in England, he has been appointed to the newly reconstituted office of Crowner (Coroner). He fights a pitched battle with his corrupt, treacherous brother-in-law, the Sheriff, over official territory. He is very unhappily married to Mathilda, his incompatible wife; their relationship makes sleeping in peasant huts while on duty a treat. One of the things that makes it interesting, is that although Sir John is the central character, and presumably to be regarded with sympathy, his marital problems are not entirely blamed upon his wife.John is assisted in his duties by his gigantic man of arms, and his clerk, a frail, defrocked priest.In this book, John investigates the rape of one daughter of a city official and the murder of a noblewoman.