The Merchant's Mark
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- £10.99
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- £10.99
Publisher Description
The barrel should have contained books - instead it held treasure and a severed head...
Gil Cunningham and his old acquaintance, Glasgow merchant Augie Morison, expecting a delivery of books from the Low Countries, report the gruesome substitute to the Provost, and at the inquest the next morning Morison is accused of the murder and imprisoned. He appeals to Gil, who sets out with his friend and future father in law Maistre Pierre, the French master-mason, to find the treasure's owner, trace the barrel and identify the dead man.
The trail they follow leads them from the court of James IV at Stirling via a cooper's yard in Linlithgow, to another death on the bare slopes of the Pentland Hills.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In McIntosh's gripping third 15th-century historical featuring Scotsman Gil Cunningham (after 2005's The Nicholas Feast), the young lawyer-to-be finds himself in the middle of a murder inquiry when a Glasgow merchant friend, Augie Morison, discovers a severed head in a barrel that should have contained books. When Morison is accused of the murder, the amateur sleuth, aided by his future father-in-law, Master Pierre, seeks to identify the victim, as well as the source of the valuable jewels that were also concealed in the barrel. The pair cross paths with a variety of Scottish nobles, even as a bloodthirsty hit man known simply as the Axeman piles up an impressive body count that silences a number of potential witnesses. While the prime mover behind the crimes will be obvious to many, McIntosh's characterizations and period detail are first-rate and bode well for future entries in this series.
