Brother Athelstan's Canterbury pilgrimage is disrupted by brutal
murder in the latest absorbing medieval mystery.
Summer, 1381. The Great Revolt has been crushed; the king's peace
ruthlessly enforced. Brother Athelstan meanwhile is preparing for a
pilgrimage to St Thomas a Becket's shrine in Canterbury to give thanks
for the wellbeing of his congregation after the violent rebellion.
But preparations are disrupted when Athelstan is summoned to a modest
house in Cheapside, scene of a brutal triple murder. One of the victims
was the chief clerk of the Secret Chancery of John of Gaunt. Could this
be an act of revenge by the Upright Men, those rebels who survived the
Great Revolt?
At the same time Athelstan is receiving menacing messages from an
assassin who calls himself Azrael, the Angel of Death? Who is he - and
why is he targeting a harmless friar? Could Athelstan's pilgrimage be
leading him into a deadly trap?