Murder in the Holy City
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
This first book in the critically acclaimed 11th century mystery series featuring Sir Geoffrey Mappestone.
Jerusalem, 1100. On returning to the city following an exhausting desert patrol, Crusader knight Sir Geoffrey Mappestone hears screams coming from the house of a Greek baker and discovers that one of his closest friends, a fellow knight, has been murdered in the woman's bedchamber. But this is not the first suspicious death in the city: other knights and priests have also been killed, all with the same type of curved dagger with a jewelled hilt.
Ordered to investigate the deaths by his liege lord, Prince Tancred, it is not long before Sir Geoffrey finds himself drawn into dire straits involving some of the most dangerous men in the city--and learns that his closest friends could also be his deadliest enemies.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this first volume of a projected series, the setting is 12th-century Jerusalem, as conflicted then as it is now. Victorious Crusaders battle heat, grit, Saracens, Greeks, Jews and one another to retain sway over the captured city. Sir Geoffrey de Mappstone, a knight allied to the Norman leader Tancred, returning to the city from a desert patrol, discovers the corpse of a recently murdered knight in a baker's bedchamber. The murder isn't unique: three monks and two knights have been similarly dispatched with carved daggers in locations throughout the city. Charged by both Tancred and the Advocate (the Catholic religious leader in Jerusalem) to solve the murders and discover their meaning, Geoffrey ferrets out treason and treachery, finding himself in constant danger. Beaufort's novel depicts the twisted alleys and markets of Jerusalem--and the equally twisted motives that brought the Crusaders there--with clarity and force. She neatly captures the particulars of everyday life, from the clothes the Crusaders wore to the food they ate. Beaufort scores with this satisfying mystery nestled securely in a well-detailed historical context.
