Dimensions
116 x 179 x 19mm
The Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan
In December 1377, as London prepares for Christmas, a great frost has the city in its icy grip; even the Thames is frozen from bank to bank. Murder, revenge and teachery also make their presence felt, for an ancient grudge is about to be settled in a city seething with discontent.
The Constable of the Tower of London, Sir Ralph Whitton, is found murdered in a cold bleak chamber in the North Bastion. The door is still locked from the inside and guarded by trusted retainers - so how did the assassins slip across a frozen moat and climb the sheer wall of the fortress to commit such a dreadful crime? And why was Sir Ralph so terrified of the message he received a few days before his death - a crude drawing of a ship and a flat sesame seed cake?
The Dominican friar, Athelstan, and Sir John Cranston, the fat, wine-loving coroner of the city of London, are appointed to investigate these mysteries. They soon discover Sir Ralph's murder is only the first in a series of macabre killings which have their roots in a terrible act of betrayal committed many years previously.
