The Deepest Grave

November 15, 2017
The latest Crispin Guest medieval mystery is set at the end of the fourteenth century. Guest, a former knight who's now the medieval version of a private investigator, is hired to find out whether a young woman's disappearance is the result of foul playshe was being pursued by an unsuitable man, says the girl's auntor whether she's simply off having some fun. When Guest finds out who the unsuitable man is (a former lord sheriff of London and a rather despicable fellow), he's pretty sure that the girl's disappearance is a very bad thing. When a monk is murdered right in front of Guest, and the girl's aunt vanishes into thin air, he determines to figure out who's behind the dastardly goings-on. Series fans will be on familiar ground, and, because the author makes sure to provide some background on Crispin Guest, newcomers can jump right in.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2018
In the latest Crispin Guest historical mystery, the year is 1392, and there are some strange goings-on at St. Modwen's Church in London. If reports are to be believed, the dead are rising up and causing mayhem in the graveyard. Guest, a sort of Middle Ages private detective (he's known as the Tracker of London), is asked to look into the unsettling events; skeptical but always in need of funds, he agrees to take the case. But he's soon distracted by a more pressing investigation: the young son of Crispin's former lover has been accused of murder, and, as it turns out, that might not be the most shocking thing about the boy. As always, Westerson does a fine job of bringing the sounds, sights, and smells (don't forget the smells!) of fourteenth-century England to life, giving readers a really good sense of what daily life might have been like for Crispin and his contemporaries. Typical of the series, the story is well plotted and comes with a deeply satisfying resolution. Another winner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

June 18, 2018
At the start of Westerson’s so-so 11th whodunit featuring investigator Crispin Guest (after 2017’s Season of Blood), set in 1392 London, Guest agrees to help Fr. Bulthius Braydon with a strange case. Braydon claims to have witnessed corpses walking one night in the cemetery adjacent to his church, St. Modwen’s. The priest’s fears of supernatural evil only increased when, on the following day, he found opened coffins whose occupants had blood on their mouths. Meanwhile, Guest takes on a mystery with a personal angle after he hears from Philippa Walcote, “who had broken his heart by marrying another.” Philippa’s seven-year-old son, Christopher, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Guest, was found next to the corpse of their neighbor and is suspected of stabbing him to death after the victim supposedly caught the boy trying to steal a relic. The clichéd second case lessens the impact of the first, more unusual one. Fans of 14th-century mysteries set in England will be better served by Susannah Gregory’s Matthew Bartholomew series.

June 15, 2018
A disgraced knight with an unwanted affinity for reliquaries is involved in yet another puzzle involving one.Crispin Guest, the Tracker, lost his status and almost his head when he followed his conscience in his choice for king. Now he tries to maintain his knightly skills while earning a living as a solver of puzzles (Season of Blood, 2017, etc.). He lives in London in a former shop with his apprentice, Jack Tucker, and Jack's very pregnant wife, Isabel. Crispin is approached by Father Bulthius of St. Modwen's Church, who claims that corpses from his graveyard climb out and walk by night and begs Crispin to come and see for himself. Although they find signs of disturbances and corpses with blood on their mouths, Crispin, ever the skeptic, seeks another answer for the strange goings-on. More important to him is a summons from Philippa Walcote, the woman he loved, who married another man. Philippa and her husband, Clarence, beg Crispin to save Christopher, their 7-year-old son, from a pending murder charge. Accused of stabbing their neighbor John Horne and trying to steal a relic, the boy says only that it was his fault. And no wonder, for he was in the room where Horne died, and his knife was the weapon. Crispin is shocked to discover that Christopher looks just like he did as a child and is obviously his own son. Fortunately, one of the two sheriffs admires his skills and gives him free rein to investigate. The missing relic, a bone stored in a red painted cow statue, attributed to St. Modwen, turns up at Crispin's home, and, although he returns it to Horne's not noticeably grieving widow, it just keeps reappearing. Crispin works hard with Jack to solve the churchyard puzzle, but even harder to save his son from death.A bit of history and folklore and a touch of romance combine to challenge the faithful hero in a case closest to his heart.

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