Chronicles of Matthew Bartholomew19-The Lost Abbot

Susanna Gregory

• 06 juni 2013
• 9781405517140

Samenvatting:

A new adventure for Matthew Bartholomew, medieval physicial/sleuth

Bartholomew crouched to lift the cloak that covered the body. Blood stained the flagstones, and he wondered whether they would become relics in time. It was not every day that murders were committed in holy places, and if the abbey was the kind of place to take advantage of such incidents, then someone might well declare Joan a martyr.
'She was struck from behind,' he said, after a brief examination. 'Almost certainly by the smaller of those two pieces of stone. The position of the wound eliminates suicide and accident.'
'Murder, then,' surmised Michael. 'So let us review what we know. Joan had cleared the chapel so that William could view the relics in private. There was no one else in here other than us, so when we left, she should have been alone. Unless the bedesman lingered inside ...'
'Is he strong enough to brain someone?' asked William. 'He seems rather frail to me.'
'It does not require much strength to bring a stone down on someone's head,' said Bartholomew.
'Is he our only suspect?' asked Michael.
Bartholomew shook his head. 'Several bedesfolk arrived as we were leaving - women and men. There are other ways into the chapel besides that door. They lead to the hospital, the abbey and the graveyard - although that was empty. Of course, its walls are not very high, and someone could easily have climbed over them. In other words, virtually anyone might have slipped in and killed her.'
William sighed. 'Well, let us hope the townsfolk do not decide to blame strangers. It would be easy to point fingers at us.'

Matthew Bartholomew doesn't want to travel to Peterborough in the summer of 1358, but his friendship with the lovely Julitta Holm has caused a scandal in Cambridge, so he has no choice. He is one of a party of Bishop's Commissioners, charged to discover what happened to Peterborough's abbot, who went for a ride one day and has not been seen since.

When the Commissioners arrive, they find the town in turmoil. A feisty rabble-rouser is encouraging the poor to rise up against their overlords, the abbey is at war with a powerful goldsmith and his army of mercenaries, and there are bitter rivalries between competing shrines. One shrine is dedicated to Lawrence de Oxforde, a vicious felon who was executed for his crimes, but who has been venerated after miracles started occurring at his grave.

However, it is not long before murder rears its head, and its first victim is Joan, the woman in charge of Oxforde's tomb...