Blood Lance
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A medieval knight turned private investigator is joined by Geoffrey Chaucer in his latest case featuring "clever twists and convincing period detail" (Publishers Weekly).
Private investigator and former knight Crispin Guest faces his most complicated case yet when he witnesses a body fall from London bridge into the frigid River Thames. Though the man's death is declared a suicide, Guest sees evidence of foul play. His investigation leads him to Sir Thomas Saunfayl, an old acquaintance from his knighthood days. It seems the dead man was bargaining with Sir Thomas for the Spear of Longinus, the weapon used to pierce the side of Christ on the Cross, which grants invincibility to its owner.
After his friend Geoffrey Chaucer arrives in London, all too eager to help find the spear, Guest finds himself trying to solve a conundrum of many parts, all centered around the same dangerous and coveted relic. With evocative period detail and an unforgettable cast of characters, Blood Lance was a Kirkus Reviews "Top 10 Hot Crime Novels" of Fall 2012.
"A lively tale of historical interest smoothly combined with a worthy mystery." —Kirkus Reviews
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Clever twists and convincing period detail make Westerson's fifth 14th-century historical featuring disgraced knight Crispin Guest (after 2011's Troubled Bones) one of her best, though she's not yet at the top level of the medieval subgenre. After a successful battle against some thuggish members of the London Watch, Guest sees a man plunge into the Thames from the upper story of a house on London Bridge. Without hesitation, the sleuth dives in after him, only to find that the man is already dead. Guest is skeptical of claims that the deceased, identified as armorer Roger Grey, took his own life, especially after Grey's two apprentices disappear. Sir Thomas Saunfayl, a former comrade-in-arms of Guest, paid Grey a great deal of money to fashion a relic "suitable for a knight" that's now missing, and he hires Guest to recover it. The quest for the relic leads inexorably to the surprising truth about Grey's death.
