Nightshade

Starred review from January 31, 2011
Whodunits don't get much better than this outstanding historical, Doherty's 16th Sir Hugh Corbett medieval mystery (after 2010's The Waxman Murders). Edward I dispatches Corbett, keeper of the secret seal, to Essex to recover an ornate cross claimed by the Templars from Lord Oliver Scrope. The king also wants Corbett to censure Scrope for exceeding his authority in ordering the massacre of the members of a religious sect the orthodox Scrope had labeled heretical. On arrival, Corbett finds Scrope's community plagued by a killer known as Sagittarius, who has already claimed multiple victims. The murderous archer has created an atmosphere of terror with his apparently random attacks, heralded with the blast of a hunter's horn. Another murder committed in a locked room on an inaccessible island considerably ups the ante. The first-rate pacing will have readers racing through the book to learn the truth, which the author has artfully concealed.

February 1, 2011

Yet another vexing case for Sir Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the Secret Seal, personal emissary of Edward I of England and clever sleuth.

Furious over the looting of his treasury, a good deal of whose riches have not been recovered, King Edward sends Hugh Corbett and his companions Ranulf, Principal Clerk of the Chancery, and Chanson, Clerk of the Stables, off to question Lord Oliver Scrope. Scrope is a hot-tempered man who recently massacred a group of religious men and women he considered heretics. The King is interested in a fabulous jeweled cross Scrope took from the battlefield at Acre. The cross belonged to the Knights Templar, who want it back. When Corbett arrives in Mistleham, he finds a town in fear of the Sagittarius, an archer who's killing people apparently at random. The man calling himself Nightshade, who told the parish priest that Scrope must confess his sins in the market square, may be the Sagittarius. But other suspects abound. Scrope's wife hates him, the mayor may be his by-blow and his sister is a nun who loved the cousin he left for dead at Acre. When Scrope is murdered in a locked room on his private island, Corbett has ever more searching questions to ask. Well aware that no one is telling the truth, he uses his keen intellect to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Hugh's 16th adventure (The Waxman Murders, 2010, etc.) is another fine historical mystery steeped in medieval atmosphere.

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April 1, 2011

Sir Hugh Corbett (The Waxman Murders) once again helps King Edward I in a covert mission.

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