Bloodstone

by Paul Doherty

Overview

An intriguing new Brother Athelstan historical mystery December, 1380. When the corpse of Sir Robert Kilverby is discovered in a locked room, Brother Athelstan accompanies the King's coroner to investigate. For Sir Robert had in his possession a priceless relic, a sacred bloodstone, which has now disappeared. Did Sir Robert die of natural causes or was he murdered? Athelstan is sceptical of rumours of a curse hanging over Sir Robert, but when it is discovered that a second old soldier has been gruesomely slain on the same night, the rumours no longer seem so far-fetched . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780295206
Publisher:	Severn House Publishers
Publication date:	01/15/2013
Series:	Brother Athelstan Mysteries , #11
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	511,469
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

Editorial Reviews

Set in 1380, Doherty’s solid 11th mystery featuring Brother Athelstan (after 2003’s The House of Shadows) opens with the poisoning death of Sir Robert Kilverby, a retired merchant, who’s found in a locked room of his London mansion with no obvious way for the fatal substance to have been administered. Kilverby is but the first victim of a vicious killer, who appears to be targeting members of the Wyvern Company, a group of master bowmen who stole “a precious bloodstone,” the Passio Christi, believed to have been formed from drops of Christ’s blood. The case is a natural for Athelstan, who’s been distracted from spiritual pursuits in the past by his fascination with nabbing murderers, and may have political implications for England and its boy king ruler. This is a better-than-average whodunit, even if it’s not up to the standard of Doherty’s best work. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Brother Athelstan's (The House of Shadows) worst fears are confirmed when a serial killer is linked to the theft of a cherished relic in this late-14th-century case. [See Prepub Alert, 11/14/11.]

Library Journal

This portrait of England in the late Middle Ages is expertly depicted by narrator Terry Wale. Author Doherty’s historical crime novels both instruct on daily life in centuries past and entertain with intricate, baffling plots. Wale portrays a warmhearted but resolute Brother Athelstan, the little friar who uses logic and intuition to solve vicious murders and unravel the mystery of how a precious religious relic was spirited out of a locked room. Transporting listeners back to the fourteenth century, a time of political instability, hereditary power, religious superstition, and violence, Wale narrates the story with authority and compassion and conveys the friar’s zeal for justice. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2014 - AudioFile

Dominican monk Brother Athelstan and his companion in crime solving, Sir John Cranston, Lord High Coroner of London, take on a locked-room murder. Sir John drags Athelstan away from his parish when wealthy merchant Sir Robert Kilverby is found dead in his windowless, locked chancery study. Even worse, the fabulous Bloodstone, which Kilverby holds for the Crown, is missing. Although the sleuths soon realize that Kilverby was poisoned, their real challenge is in determining how. The Bloodstone was one of a number of religious artifacts that a group of English archers known as the Wyvern Company claimed to have found on a cart in France, though many suspect that they had in fact looted them from the Abbey of St. Calliste. Since the remaining Wyverns are living and dying at the Abbey of St. Fulcher, that's where Athelstan and Sir John begin their investigation. They're greeted with the news that one of the Wyverns has been murdered. Sub-Prior Richer is from France, and Athelstan suspects him of secretly working to return the loot to St. Castille. Abbott Walter seems far more interested in his pet swan and his supposed sister and niece than in murder and theft. Prior Alexander favors Richer more than is seemly. All of them are hiding secrets. More deaths among the Wyvern Company and attempts on Athelstan's life follow as he comes closer to uncovering the truth. The 11th in this series (The House of Shadows, 2003, etc.) brings to life the sights, sounds and smells of 1380. The mystery presents an intriguing puzzle but moves ponderously to its solution.

Kirkus Reviews