Bloodstone

February 6, 2012
Set in 1380, Doherty’s solid 11th mystery featuring Brother Athelstan (after 2003’s The House of Shadows) opens with the poisoning death of Sir Robert Kilverby, a retired merchant, who’s found in a locked room of his London mansion with no obvious way for the fatal substance to have been administered. Kilverby is but the first victim of a vicious killer, who appears to be targeting members of the Wyvern Company, a group of master bowmen who stole “a precious bloodstone,” the Passio Christi, believed to have been formed from drops of Christ’s blood. The case is a natural for Athelstan, who’s been distracted from spiritual pursuits in the past by his fascination with nabbing murderers, and may have political implications for England and its boy king ruler. This is a better-than-average whodunit, even if it’s not up to the standard of Doherty’s best work.

March 15, 2012
Dominican monk Brother Athelstan and his companion in crime solving, Sir John Cranston, Lord High Coroner of London, take on a locked-room murder. Sir John drags Athelstan away from his parish when wealthy merchant Sir Robert Kilverby is found dead in his windowless, locked chancery study. Even worse, the fabulous Bloodstone, which Kilverby holds for the Crown, is missing. Although the sleuths soon realize that Kilverby was poisoned, their real challenge is in determining how. The Bloodstone was one of a number of religious artifacts that a group of English archers known as the Wyvern Company claimed to have found on a cart in France, though many suspect that they had in fact looted them from the Abbey of St. Calliste. Since the remaining Wyverns are living and dying at the Abbey of St. Fulcher, that's where Athelstan and Sir John begin their investigation. They're greeted with the news that one of the Wyverns has been murdered. Sub-Prior Richer is from France, and Athelstan suspects him of secretly working to return the loot to St. Castille. Abbott Walter seems far more interested in his pet swan and his supposed sister and niece than in murder and theft. Prior Alexander favors Richer more than is seemly. All of them are hiding secrets. More deaths among the Wyvern Company and attempts on Athelstan's life follow as he comes closer to uncovering the truth. The 11th in this series (The House of Shadows, 2003, etc.) brings to life the sights, sounds and smells of 1380. The mystery presents an intriguing puzzle but moves ponderously to its solution.

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April 1, 2012

Brother Athelstan's (The House of Shadows) worst fears are confirmed when a serial killer is linked to the theft of a cherished relic in this late-14th-century case. [See Prepub Alert, 11/14/11.]

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2012
Medieval mystery fans have cause for rejoicing with the return of Brother Athelstan. After a hiatus of nearly a decade, the shrewd friar, scribe to Sir John Cranston, the king's coroner, is back sleuthing up a storm as he attempts to solve a string of murders revolving around a precious relic. Before Sir Robert Kilverby, a well-heeled Cheapside merchant, can donate the stolen Passio Christi, a ruby believed to have been formed from the blood of Christ, to the abbey of St. Fulcher's, he is poisoned, and the bloodstone disappears. When others associated with the initial theft of the bloodstone also meet grim fates, it becomes clear that all the murders are connected, and it is up to Athelstan to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. The proficient Doherty layers one intriguing mystery upon another in this authentically detailed historical whodunit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)