Roger the Chapman Medieval Mystery
2 primary works • 9 total works
Book 7
Book 8
It is October 1477 and Roger the Chapman, still basking in wedded bliss, is surprised to find himself feeling restless again. He soon sets off on his travels, driven south by the feeling he is needed there. Roger eventually arrives in Plymouth to be confronted by the brutal murder of a wealthy old man, Master Capstick. The old man s great-nephew, Beric is widely believed to have committed the murder, but has vanish completely. Locals rumour suggests that Beric has eaten the Saint John s fern which can make a man invisible. Roger, quick to dismiss such old-fashioned beliefs, begins his own investigation and soon finds his life in danger. It appears that he is close to a truth that is even more extraordinary than the superstition...
The eleventh in the highly acclaimed Roger the Chapman series It's July 1478, and business is good for Bristol's bakers during the lead up to Lammastide - 'Loaf-mass', the ancient harvest festival. But the shady Jasper Fairbrother's baking days are over when he's found face down with a knife in his back. Suspicion immediately falls on the mysterious Breton who'd arrived that day and had been seen having an argument with Fairbrother. But when it emerges that the Breton is also a suspected Lancastrian spy, Roger the Chapman wonders if suspicion of murder is merely a convenient pretext for the authorities to hunt down the Breton. True, there is no reason for Roger to take an interest in the case, and should he when he ought to be peddling his wares to provide for his new baby boy? But his curiosity and sense of justice is piqued - and before he finds out who murdered the baker, he is to become more than a little personally involved as some of the things nearest and dearest to his heart come under threat.
King Edward IV trembles as he decides the fate of his sibling. And Richard, Duke of Gloucester, plots, trying to find a way to save George from being put to death by their eldest - and powerful - brother, the King. So when the Duke sees his old and loyal servant, monk-turned-travelling salesman Roger the Chapman, among the crowd at the trial he recognises that he has a chance. If only the chapman-sleuth could prove that the kinswoman of the King's favourite leman hadn't poisoned her taciturn husband. If Isolda Bonifant, the daughter of a well-established London goldsmith, were innocent and her name cleared, then Edward's chief mistress - cousin of the accused Isolda - would be more than willing to do the wily Duke's bidding. But Roger the Chapman must act fast and, in a complex case like this one and with the pressure of Richard of Gloucester upon him, he can't simply rely on his intuition.