Volume VIII of the Domesday Books.
His business completed, Nicholas Picard rides home in the gathering dusk of the Devonshire countryside. Lost in his thoughts, he does not see the danger ahead. And by the time he is aware of the snarling wildcat it is too late. They find his body in the woods - the claw marks on his face a hideous indication of his attacker. But the laceration to his throat is the work of a human hand.
The discovery of Picard's death complicates an already difficult case for Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret. The murdered man was involved in one of the land disputes they are in Exeter to adjudicate and new claims are now made on the property in question. Picard's wife, Catherine, views herself as the obvious benefactor but his mistress and the mother of a previous owner have other ideas. So determined is each woman to prove her claim that the commissioners soon begin to wonder if this piece of land could have driven one of them to murder. But the root of the mystery lies far deeper than avarice . . .
