The Tainted Relic - Softcover

The Medieval Murderers

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743267958 ISBN 13: 9780743267953

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2005

Synopsis

In 1100, an English knight named was entrusted with a precious religious relic—a piece of the True Cross, allegedly stained with the blood of Christ. The relic is said to curse anyone who touches with a gruesome end as soon as it leaves their possession. Several decades pass, and the Cross turns up in the possession of a dealer who is robbed and murdered en route to Glastonbury. Investigating the death, Bernard Knight’s protagonist, Crowner John, learns of the relic’s dark history. In 1269, the discovery of a decapitated monk leads Ian Morson’s academic sleuth William Falconer to uncover a link to the relic, and in 1323, Michael Jecks’ Sir Baldwin Furnshill has reason to suspect the relic’s involvement in at least five violent deaths. Finally, the relic is dispatched to London, where it falls into the hands of an unscrupulous book dealer—and where Philip Gooden’s Nick Revill will determine its ultimate fate.

About this title

About the Author

The Medieval Murderers are Michael Jecks, Susanna Gregory, Bernard Knight, Ian Morson, Philip Gooden, and Simon Beaufort.

From the Inside Flap

Linked by a common thread, the Tainted Relic, these chronologically written novellas read like a single, epic historical mystery. A must for any medieval mystery fan.

Reviews

This entertaining but uneven round-robin effort by six British crime writers traces the sinister history of a "fragment of the true cross" from its origin in Jerusalem in A.D. 1100 through 10 bloody centuries. In Beaufort's prologue, Barzac, the unlikely Arab custodian of this artifact, places a curse on anyone touching the scrap of wood "stained with Christ's blood" after Crusaders massacre his family. The relic claims three victims in Jerusalem before turning up in 1194 in England, where chapman Robert Blundus (in Knight's absorbing "Act One") seeks to peddle this treasure to any willing churchman. Further travails over the centuries lead to Philip Gooden's lively conclusion, in which Shakespeare and friends get embroiled in a semicomical mixup between a missing play of his and this "popish gewgaw." A brief epilogue, set in present-day London, provides a final ironic twist. (Jan.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743267958
• ISBN 13: 9780743267953
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 502