Product Description

Exeter, 1195: At a local jousting day, there's a serious altercation between Hugh Peverel, lord of Sampford Peverel, near Tiverton, and a stranger by the name of Reginald de Charterai. Two days later, Hugh's body is found in a barn, stabbed in the back. Is de Charterai to blame? The county coroner, Sir John de Wolfe, soon finds plenty of other suspects for the killing of the almost universally hated Hugh Peverel. All three of his brothers had a motive: two for the succession and the third to steal Hugh's attractive young wife, Beatrice. It's no secret that Beatrice herself detested her adulterous husband, as did his mother-in-law, Adelina. Another suspect is Godwin Thatcher, a Saxon villager whose two sons were hanged some months earlier, being arbitrarily sentenced by Hugh at his manorial court. Then there's the manor reeve, Warin Fishacre, who harboured a deep grudge against his master for taking the virginity of his daughter, Maud, just before her marriage. With so many suspects to choose from, Sir John is confronted with one of the most difficult cases of his distinguished career.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59209 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 374 pages

About the Author
Professor Bernard Knight, CBE, became a Home Office Pathologist in 1965 and was appointed Professor of Forensic Pathology, University of Wales College of Medicine, in 1980. During his 40-year career with the Home Office, he performed over 25,000 autopsies, and was involved in many high profile cases, including that of Fred and Rose West (he examined all twelve bodies that were recovered) and the child killer, Mary Bell. The author of ten novels, a biography and numerous popular and academic non-fiction books, he has written six books in the Crowner John mystrey series.

Customer Reviews

Crowner John's Patience is Tested
Bernard Knight's books are always a good read, well researched and authentic without overpowering the reader with information he either does not need to know or is not interested in anyway.

This case for Crowner John revolves around the tournament scene. These events took place regularly, but not always with the blessing of the King (Richard the Lionheart) and other later Kings, who quite rightly thought that a large gathering of heavily armed men was not always conducive the their own health and their grip on the throne.

Crowner John is called from the inauguration of the new sheriff and preparations for the tournament that is about to take place to an unidentified body. The death is not accidental, but a brutal murder and Sir John has to start tracking down who the man is before he can set about finding his killer or killers.

His inquiries lead him towards a well known family in the County the Peverals. Hugo who has already disgraced himself in the tournament is now head of the family after his father William was killed in somewhat strange circumstances at a tournament held earlier in the year.

Hugo has an older brother, who has been overlooked as Lord of the Manor because of the falling sickness, and Hugo has greedily taken the title. He also has two younger brothers, one of them Ralph is also well known on the tournament circuit.

The family do everything they can to block Sir John's inquiries and the relationship becomes so bad between them that it could have serious consequences for the Crowner . . .

Crowner John
This book series is excellent, a good read with historical content to boot. It would help if the books were numbered in some way so the reading order could be easily identified

brilliant
discovered two john crowner books at tescos and was hooked had to order all the others. What great books husband discovered them when i took them on holiday nice to find a book that men and women can enjoy takes me back to my history lessons at school carry on writing mr knight