For Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace, and his friend, Bailiff Simon Puttock, the Christmas of 1321 looks set to be one of great festivity. As a reward for their investigative services, they've been summoned to Exeter to receive the prestigious gloves of honour in a ceremony led by the specially elected Boy-Bishop. But the dead man swinging on the gallows as they arrived is a portentous greeting . . .
Within hours, they learn that Ralph - the cathedral's glovemaker and the city's beloved philanthropist - has been robbed and stabbed to death. When Peter, a Secondary at the cathedral, collapses from poisoning in the middle of Mass, the finger of suspicion turns to him. Yet if he was Ralph's attacker, where are the missing riches now? And did Peter commit suicide - or was he murdered too?
When Simon and Baldwin are asked to solve the riddles surrounding the deaths, they soon find that many of Exeter's leading citizens are not what - and who - they first seem to be, and that the city's Christmas bustle is concealing a ruthless murderer who is about to strike again . . .
