Day of the Serpent, The
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
The murder of a loyal king’s man threatens the self-crowned King Henry’s new regime in this second gripping medieval mystery featuring friar, sleuth and reluctant spy Brother Chandler.
January, 1400. The bowman strikes at night, slaying one of King Henry’s loyal garrison men before melting back into the darkness. Was the murder the result of a personal quarrel? Or is it, as Henry’s stepbrother, Swynford, fears, the start of an uprising against England’s self-crowned king? Swynford orders Brother Chandler to investigate, before the spark of rebellion can set the whole country alight.
Friar, reluctant sleuth, and even more reluctant spy, Brother Chandler is a man with dark secrets and divided loyalties. To the murdered King Richard. To his paymaster, the usurper King Henry. And to beautiful, naïve Mattie, a maid in the household of heretical poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who holds dangerous secrets of her own.
Trusted by no one, Chandler must walk a tightrope of secrets and lies if he is to uncover the truth about the murder, while ensuring he – and the few people he cares about – stay alive.
Combining rich historical detail with deep characterisations and enthralling mystery, this medieval puzzler is a perfect choice for fans of sleuthing monks and nuns like Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael and Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The tumultuous politics of Henry IV's early reign propel Clark's solid sequel to 2020's The Hour of the Fox. In 1400, Sir Thomas Swynford, "stepbrother to the usurper king," compels Brother Chandler, a perceptive and worldly London friar who serves as a reluctant spy for the House of Lancaster, to accompany him and his entourage on a mysterious journey north. Their destination turns out to be Pontefract Castle, where Richard II, the Plantagenet king deposed in 1399, is imprisoned. Chandler, whose job it is to care for the ailing Richard, is appalled by his treatment. When Richard dies, having "starved himself from melancholy," Swynford and company head back to London with the king's coffin. Along the way, a mysterious bowman picks off Swynford's men one by one, and Chandler is ordered to find the killer. The search for the culprit, whose victims the reader knows little about, takes a back seat to factional plots in London, Chandler's evolving sense of morality, and the mystery of forbidden books harbored by poet Geoffrey Chaucer, employer of Matilda, the friar's love interest. Those who enjoy medieval stories of betrayal and ruthlessness will be rewarded.
