In the summer of 1144, a strange calm has settled over England. The armies of King Stephen and the Empress Maud, the two royal cousins contending for the throne, have temporarily exhausted each other. On the whole, Brother Cadfael considers peace a blessing. Still, a little excitement never comes amiss to a former soldier, and Cadfael is delighted to accompany a friend on a mission of diplomacy to his native Wales. But shortly after their arrival, the two monks are caught up in another royal feud. The Welsh prince Owain Gwynedd has banished his brother Cadwaladr, accusing him of the treacherous murder of an ally. The reckless Cadwaladr has retaliated by landing an army of Danish mercenaries, poised to invade Wales. As the two armies teeter on the brink of bloody civil war, Cadfael is captured by the Danes and must navigate the brotherly quarrel that threatens to plunge an entire kingdom into chaos.

The anthology centres around a piece of the True Cross, allegedly stained with the blood of Christ, which falls into the hands of Geoffrey Mappestone in 1100, at the end of the First Crusade. The relic is said to be cursed and, after three inexplicable deaths, it finds its way to England in the hands of a thief. After several decades, the relic appears in Devon, where it becomes part of a story by Bernard Knight, set in the 12th century and involving his protagonist, Crowner John. Next, it appears in a story by Ian Morson, solved by his character, the Oxford academic Falconer, and then it migrates back to Devon to encounter Sir Baldwin (Michael Jecks). Eventually, it arrives in Cambridge, in the middle of a contentious debate about Holy Blood relics that really did rage in the 1350s, where it meets Matthew Bartholomew and Brother Michael (Susanna Gregory). Finally, it's despatched to London, where it falls into the hands of Elizabethan players and where Philip Gooden's Nick Revill will determine its ultimate fate.

The Twelfth Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew.In the bitter winter of 1356 Matthew Bartholomew and his book-bearer Cynric accompany Brother Michael to Lincoln, so that Michael can be installed as a cathedral canon. Bartholomew is also on a personal quest, continuing his search for the beautiful Matilde.The Michaelhouse men find Lincoln an unholy place, riven by discord, with a Bishop seemingly unable to control the wild behaviour of his cathedral clergy, and with a sheriff happily accepting bribes to give him, if not Lincoln’s citizens, a peaceful life. They also find murder, and the reappearance of a holy relic that had been stolen more than twenty years earlier.Against their will, the Cambridge scholars are drawn into investigating the unnatural deaths, and the circumstances surrounding the provenance of the so-called Hugh Chalice, endangering both their lives and their souls as they are caught up in the maelstrom of corruption that courses through the ancient city. And through it all, Bartholomew continues his desperate hunt for the elusive Matilde …

The fifteenth Knights Templar MysteryIt is the summer of 1323, and Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock have been granted leave to go on pilgrimage. Together they travel across Europe to Santiago de Compostela. But danger is never far away, and when a beautiful girl is found murdered on a hillside, the friends are among the first on the scene.Baldwin and Simon lend their investigative skills to the enquiry, headed by the local pesquisidore. But the unexpected appearance of a face from Baldwin’s past could threaten the investigation, as well as the future of Baldwin himself. . .

1867, Canada: as winter tightens its grip on the isolated settlement of Dove River, a man is brutally murdered and a 17-year old boy disappears. Tracks leaving the dead man's cabin head north towards the forest and the tundra beyond. In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the township - journalists, Hudson's Bay Company men, trappers, traders - but do they want to solve the crime or exploit it? One-by-one the assembled searchers set out from Dove River, pursuing the tracks across a desolate landscape home only to wild animals, madmen and fugitives, variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for 17 years, a Native American culture, and a fortune in stolen furs before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.In an astonishingly assured debut Stef Penney deftly weaves adventure, suspense, revelation and humour into a story that is both panoramic historical romance and exhilarating thriller. Now reissued in an attractive new livery, The Tenderness of Wolves is one of the most widely liked and admired novels of the previous decade.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #161481. When the remains of Isabella Linkinhorne, who disappeared twenty years earlier and was known to have had three secret lovers, are discovered on nunnery land, Roger the Chapman is called in.Faced with the task of tracking down three people of whom he knows next to nothing, Roger nicknames them Caspar, Balthazar and Melchoir after the Magi, the Three Kings of Cologne…

A Crowner John Mystery #5

Coroner Sir John is plunged into the world of the tinners in this entertaining instalment in the Crowner John medieval mystery series, set in twelfth-century England.

1195. When county coroner Sir John de Wolfe is summoned to the bleak Devonshire moors to investigate the murder of a tin miner, he has little idea how difficult this new investigation will prove.

The victim is a well-loved overman of Devon’s most successful mine owner, Walter Knapman. Only one motive seems probable – to sabotage Walter’s business. But the tinners have their own laws and are none too pleased at Crowner John’s interference. And then Walter disappears…

A decapitated body, a missing tinner, a disgruntled band of miners – how on earth can Crowner John, battling personal problems of his own, sort all this out? Only Gwyn, John’s indispensable right-hand man, seems to be of any help at all – until Gwyn himself is arrested and tried for murder…