As midwife and healer, Agatha Kyteler is regarded as a witch by her superstitious neighbours in the village of Wefford in Devonshire, yet she has no shortage of callers, from the humblest villein to the most elegant and wealthy in the area. But when Agatha's body is found frozen and mutilated in a hedge one wintry morning, there seem to be no clues as to who could be responsible. Not until a local youth runs away and a hue and cry is raised.Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace, is not convinced of the youth's guilt, and soon he manages to persuade his close friend Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford Castle, to help him continue with the investigation. As they endeavour to find the true culprit, the darker side of the village, with its undercurrents of suspicion, jealousy and disloyalty, emerges. And while Sir Baldwin becomes increasingly distracted by the beauty of a neighbouring merchant's wife, Simon finds himself wondering what happened to the foreigner who visited the normally sleepy area only to disappear shortly after Agatha's death, riding down towards the moors ...

As midwife and healer, Agatha Kyteler is regarded as a witch by her superstitious neighbours in the village of Wefford in Devonshire, yet she has no shortage of callers, from the humblest villein to the most elegant and wealthy in the area. But when Agatha's body is found frozen and mutilated in a hedge one wintry morning, there seem to be no clues as to who could be responsible. Not until a local youth runs away and a hue and cry is raised.Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace, is not convinced of the youth's guilt, and soon he manages to persuade his close friend Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford Castle, to help him continue with the investigation. As they endeavour to find the true culprit, the darker side of the village, with its undercurrents of suspicion, jealousy and disloyalty, emerges. And while Sir Baldwin becomes increasingly distracted by the beauty of a neighbouring merchant's wife, Simon finds himself wondering what happened to the foreigner who visited the normally sleepy area only to disappear shortly after Agatha's death, riding down towards the moors ...

As midwife and healer, Agatha Kyteler is regarded as a witch by her superstitious neighbours in the village of Wefford in Devonshire, yet she has no shortage of callers, from the humblest villein to the most elegant and wealthy in the area. But when Agatha's body is found frozen and mutilated in a hedge one wintry morning, there seem to be no clues as to who could be responsible. Not until a local youth runs away and a hue and cry is raised.Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace, is not convinced of the youth's guilt, and soon he manages to persuade his close friend Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford Castle, to help him continue with the investigation. As they endeavour to find the true culprit, the darker side of the village, with its undercurrents of suspicion, jealousy and disloyalty, emerges. And while Sir Baldwin becomes increasingly distracted by the beauty of a neighbouring merchant's wife, Simon finds himself wondering what happened to the foreigner who visited the normally sleepy area only to disappear shortly after Agatha's death, riding down towards the moors ...

Roger the Chapman Mystery #20In the sultry midsummer of 1483, as Richard of Gloucester begins his bid for the English crown, Roger returns home to Bristol, glad to be out of the capital. But almost immediately, the Duke recalls him to London to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a young boy whose tutor has been found murdered, apparently in a locked room.It is an investigation which has as its background an ancient British legend, and which will imperil Roger’s life as never before.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #13Roger the Chapman is not a superstitious man.He hears stories of murders and haunted houses around the market town of Bristol, and chooses to believe the more prosaic explanation every time. But when Roger is himself attacked in the very house where a woman murdered her violent husband thirty years previously, he is forced to admit that something strange is going on – particularly when everybody he encounters in the town denies seeing or hearing anything untoward in the notorious house that stormy night. And when his own wife refuses to believe his story, he starts to worry that he is losing his mind.An indignant – and instinctively curious – Roger puts his detective skills into action once again to find out who made the attempt on his life. He soon learns more and more about the strange old house and about the people of the market town of Bristol, some of whom have much more to hide than he would ever have believed.

Джессика Феллоуз — автор бестселлеров «The New York Times» о культовом сериале «Аббатство Даунтон» и племянница его создателя, лорда Феллоуза. Она также получила заслуженную известность как уникальный знаток жизни Великобритании XX века.

1920 год.

Луиза Кэннон отчаянно стремится вырваться из лап нищеты. Ее спасение — стать нянькой в известном аристократическом семействе. Здесь она сближается со старшей дочерью лорда, Нэнси, умной не по годам девушкой. Вместе они оказываются втянуты в расследование загадочного убийства сестры милосердия, героини Первой мировой войны, — убийства, совершенного в поезде прямо посреди бела дня. Так начинается история сестер Митфорд, шести реально существовавших женщин, скандально известных во всем мире…

Set in Italy in the Middle Ages, this is not only a narrative of a murder investigation in a monastery in 1327, but also a chronicle of the 14th century religious wars, a history of monastic orders, and a compendium of heretical movements.