The Song of the Nightingale
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
In the latest Hawkenlye mystery, desperate men commit terrible crimes - but vengeance is on its way . . .
Winter, 1211. Former abbess Helewise moves back to her cell near Hawkenlye Abbey to help the needy, putting a strain on her relationship with Sir Josse D'Acquin, who is called to examine the bodies of three men, one of whom bears a complicated symbol carved into his chest: a symbol that signifies vengeance.
Meanwhile, far from home, Sir Josse's son Ninian has become involved in the cause of the doomed Cathar people; soon to be swept up in a fight that they cannot hope to win.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the grim prologue of Clare's solid 14th Hawkenlye mystery set in 13th-century England (after 2011's The Rose of the World), three homeless thugs attack a family of three in their isolated house: a father and mother and their grown daughter. The father dies, the mother goes mad, and the daughter, who's raped, calls out for vengeance. Sure enough, three male corpses are later unearthed in the woods near Hawkenlye Abbey. When Sir Josse d'Acquin, lord of the local manor, investigates, he learns that the likely date of their deaths coincides with the end of a series of robberies and assaults in the area. But getting a handle on the dead men's identities is only the first step in ascertaining how they met their end. While the mystery component isn't particularly memorable, Clare has never been better at showing how the common folk struggled to survive under the oppressive reign of King John.
