The Noble Outlaw

Lovers of historical mysteries will enjoy Paul Matthews's sonorous rendition of Bernard Knight's series about a twelfth-century English coroner. In this installment, Crowner John must solve the gruesome murders of several well-respected craftsmen while also coping with a Crusader who has been forced from his home (the "noble outlaw" of the title). As always, accurate historical detail is one of the book's fascinations--for example, the town of Oxford smelled better in the winter because the garbage that flowed in a gully down the middle of every major street was frozen solid. Knight's writing can be sloppy in this eleventh installment, such as using the same adjective twice in one sentence, but Matthews' easy-listening voice and thoughtful characterizations keep us focused on the book's many pleasures. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Starred review from December 17, 2007
A serial killer targets respected guildsmen in Knight’s gripping 11th Crowner John mystery (after The Elixir of Life
), set in 12th-century Exeter. When Matthew Morcok, a former master saddler, is found mummified above a renovated school, the authorities call on Sir John de Wolfe and coroner’s clerk Thomas de Peyne to stop what is fast becoming “a campaign of terror.” Later victims include a master glazier, who’s strangled, and a candle maker impaled through the eye. John’s work is complicated by the conflict between his shady brother-in-law, Richard de Revelle, and “Nick o’ the Moor,” an outlaw who returned from the Crusades to find his estates expropriated by de Revelle and de Revelle’s cronies. John makes an arduous wintertime journey into Dartmoor to meet Nick, who’s actually a knight, Nicholas de Arundell. Nick’s plight so moves John that he takes the outlaw’s case to England’s “Chief Justiciar” for resolution. The author offers a vivid picture of medieval life with fascinating insights into England’s fledgling legal system.