The golden summer of 1303 and Oxford is plunged into chaos. The severed heads of beggars have been tied by their hair to the trees in woods outside the city. John Copsale, the Regent of Sparrow Hall, has been found dead in his bed and it is being whispered that he was murdered by the mysterious 'Bell Man'. Then the college librarian and activist, Robert Ascham is discovered with a crossbow bolt in his chest. King Edward, hearing of the seething unrest in Oxford, arrives unannounced at Sir Hugh Corbett's country manor, and insists that Corbett go to the city to solve the murderous mysteries. And when the King commands, few can resist even if it means knowingly entering a dangerous and violent world...
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Paul Doherty was born in Middlesbrough. He studied History at Liverpool and Oxford Universities and obtained a doctorate for his thesis on Edward II and Queen Isabella. He is now headmaster of a school in north-east London and lives with his family in Essex.
It's 1303 and Edward, King of England, has asked his onetime courier and chief clerk Sir Hugh Corbett (Satan's Fire, 1996, etc.) for help with a series of disasters besetting the town of Oxford. The university's Sparrow Hall, founded by the late Sir Henry Braose and his sister Mathilda, has been the scene of several faculty murders--Regent Copsale; much-loved librarian Ascham; and his friend Passerel, found poisoned in a local church. Then there are the headless corpses, mostly of beggars, found in the woods outside town. Compounding it all are the proclamations, signed ``Bellman,'' nailed to church doors and elsewhere, that praise the glories of the King's dead enemy the Earl de Montfort. Sir Hugh reluctantly agrees to investigate and, with faithful servants Ranulf and Maltote, moves into Sparrow Hall, where Mathilda still resides with her deaf-mute servant Master Moth. The students are an unruly lot, largely Welsh, bearing no love for the King and given to debauchery, and possibly worse, in Oxford's woody outskirts. Meantime, the masters have their own secrets, and more of them will die before Sir Hugh unmasks the evil spirit behind the mayhem. Tenth in a series that grows denser and more convoluted with every episode. Tension ebbs and flows sporadically amid the churchly rites, rehashed battles, hooded figures ever lurking in dark corners, and repetitious accounts of the town's filthy lanes and seedy inhabitants. A tangled, torpid slog. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Destination, rates & speedsSeller: Philip Emery, Bridlington, United Kingdom
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st edition. Hardback in dust jacket. VG/VG. Former public library copy. ISBN 0747217645. 15834. Seller Inventory # 62991
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Black Cat Bookshop P.B.F.A, Leicester, United Kingdom
A medieval mystery featuring Hugh Corbett. Rebound ex-library copy. Lacks FEP. Generally G+ in G-VG dustwrapper. Seller Inventory # 9302
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Kennys Bookstore, Olney, MD, U.S.A.
Condition: Very Good. 1996. Hardcover. Good clean copy with some minor shelf wear. Dustwrapper has some minor edge wear but remains very good. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # KKD0004870
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries Ltd., Galway, GY, Ireland
Condition: Very Good. 1996. Hardcover. Good clean copy with some minor shelf wear. Dustwrapper has some minor edge wear but remains very good. . . . . Seller Inventory # KKD0004870
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Bookmans, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Acceptable. Satisfaction 100% guaranteed. Seller Inventory # mon0001603879
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Karl Eynon Books Ltd, Tywyn, United Kingdom
Hardback. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First Edition. 1st impression. An ex library copy lacking the front blank endpaper. Seller Inventory # 096213
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Capitol Hill Books, ABAA, Washington, DC, U.S.A.
Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. London: Headline, 1996. First Edition. Octavo (22 cm); 249pp. Publisher's illustrated dust jacket with price intact (£16.99). Boards full bound in black cloth with gilt stamping to spine. Dust jacket lightly scratched, rubbed, and bumped with creasing to margins. Board corners mostly sharp with minor bumping to spine ends and toning to top and fore-edge. Pages lightly uniformly toned at margins but otherwise clean. Starting at title page. A Near Fine copy in like dust jacket. Signed by Doherty twice on the title page (likely as P.C. first and then as Patrick C.). The tenth in his Hugh Corbett series, set during the 13th-century reign of Edward I of England. Seller Inventory # 31327
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: THE USUAL SUSPECTS, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. First edition. A FINE book in NEAR FINE jacket.The tenth book in the Hugh Corbett series. In the summer of 1303, murder makes its presence felt in the King's university city of Oxford. Sir Hugh Corbett reluctantly agrees to the King's request that he go to Oxford to resolve the murderous mysteries - and soon finds his own life at risk. ** See our new cheaper postal rates to the USA and abroad.**. Seller Inventory # JD3148
Quantity: 1 available