Bernard Knight once more takes us back to the twelfth century when Sir John de Wolfe, Devon's first county coroner, travelled the county investigating murder and mayhem and attempting to bring some order to the chaos and violence of the time. Following his adventures on the tourney field, Crowner John has been unable to carry out this duties due to his broken leg. But with the vigorous, if resentful, nursing of his wife Matilda, he is finally able to get back to work. And just in time, because John's life is about to be turned upside down by an old acquaintance from his crusading days.
Gilbert de Rideford is a Knight of the Temple of Solomon. He claims to have come into possession of a secret that could shake Christendom to its very foundations and desperately needs John's help to escape from the secretive order of warrior monks. Suddenly, John is swept into a world of religious intrigue and dangerous politics which takes him on a life-threatening mission to the Island of Lundy - inhabited solely by notorious pirates - and finally leads him to the revelation of the awful secret, and a new-found belief in the terrible wrath of God.
