The Mansions of Murder

January 1, 2016

May 1381. The Great Peasants' Revolt is about to begin, and the envoy of the Upright Men, the Herald of Hell, walks the streets at night. In his 15th adventure (after The Book of Fires), Brother Athelstan is called to a brothel to investigate a hanging that might be murder.

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November 2, 2015
In 1381, new taxes levied on peasants have brought resentment to a fever pitch, and England’s leaders fear a revolt that will “topple both Church and Crown,” in Doherty’s solid 15th Brother Athelstan mystery (after 2014’s The Book of Fires). The Herald of Hell, an envoy of the Upright Men, the leaders of the insurrection, has been traveling around London, issuing warnings to those considered enemies of the rebels. Given the turmoil, Athelstan is naturally suspicious when chancery clerk Amaury Whitfield turns up dead. Whitfield was in the employ of Thibault, master of secrets for John of Gaunt, the kingdom’s regent, and when he’s found hanged in a locked room, Athelstan is convinced that the clerk was murdered. As always, Doherty excels in grafting a fair-play whodunit onto actual historical events, making the intrigue and fear of the period palpable while giving the astute reader a chance to solve the crime. Agent: David Headley, David Headley Literary Agency (U.K.).

January 1, 2016
As medieval London stands on the precipice of revolution, its citizenry is terrorized by restless bands of Upright Men inflamed by the audacity of the mysterious Herald of Hell. Stalking the grimy underbelly of the city at night, the Herald appears to be a sinister harbinger of doom. When Thibault, the ambitious John of Gaunt's Master of Secrets, summons Brother Athelstan, the savvy friar suspects the worst. Investigating the locked-room hanging of Thibault's chancery clerk, Athelstan, ably assisted by Sir John Cranston, Lord High Coroner of London, attempts to untangle a murder with its roots in a mysterious cipher that just might provide the key to both the crime and the culprit. In true Doherty fashion, the bodies pile up and the plot twists and turns before the satisfying and surprising conclusion. In addition to providing crackling whodunits, Doherty's long-running series (this is the fifteenth installment) continues to ratchet up the historical tension as actions and events move rapidly and inevitably toward the Peasant's Revolt of 1381.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2017
In Doherty's (A Pilgrimage to Murder, 2017) latest Brother Athelstan Medieval Mystery, the Great Revolt of 1381 is over, yet the streets of London are still rife with danger. Brutal gangs exert a dangerously insidious influence over their rival territories, but no gang master is more feared than Simon Makepeace, otherwise known as the Flesher. When Brother Athelstan and Sir John Cranston, Lord High Coroner of London, join forces to solve the murder of a priest inside the confines of a locked church, the mystery also involves the disappearance of a corpse awaiting burial and a stolen cache of money belonging to Makepeace. As his sleuths reach back into the past, long-buried secrets critically affecting present-day events are unearthed. Conjuring up medieval London in all its grime and glory, Doherty keeps readers guessing and the pages turning with yet another intricately plotted whodunit steeped in history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)