8th book in a series, and fairly standalone, so you dont feel you've lost out by not reading the others before.[return][return]Not the worst - or best - book I've read based in the Dark/middle ages. What I was very aware of was the foreshadowing that cropped up on a regular basis, and which was unsubtle enough to be noticeable. The story progressed happily enough despite this however.

It took me a long time to get into the story, but perhaps this was more due to me trying to read it in a very busy period then due to the book itself. I'm not entirely sure. I liked the ending and I am tempted to try another book in the Crowner John series, just to see wether or not it was my lack of concentration that made me dislike the beginning. ( )

The eighth in a crime fiction series set in the twelfth century, following the cases of Crowner John, a knight who has been appointed as the first coroner of Devon by Richard the Lionheart. This was the first I'd read, and will be the last even though I have another in the TBR pile, because it was a Did Not Finish for me.

Even though the elements of the story should have been a draw for me, I found it hard to get into, and the lead character hard to like. Things came to a head for me with the scene where it becomes clear that Sir John ignores his wife in favour of not one but multiple mistresses. It may be historically accurate, and the author was at pains to then tell us that John's marriage was a failure but that neither party was at fault, it having been a political marriage that both were forced into by their families -- but that's the problem for me. Having shown us a miserable marriage where John's wife seems to be an unreasonable shrew, Knight then tells us rather than shows us what the problem in the marriage is. I don't find infidelity an appealing characteristic in a lead character unless it's carefully grounded, and while this may have been partly to do with my coming in several books in, it focused my attention on the real problem I had with the book -- too much telling and not enough showing for my tastes, and both in the wrong places. After three chapters, I wanted to know the end of the story, but not enough to read the chapters in between. So not a complete failure, but not a series to add to my reading list. ( )

A general review of this series:

This is back in the good old days of law enforcement, when trial by combat was definitive and would-be plea bargainers had to fight their accomplice(s) to the death.

I find these books fascinating as living history, perhaps even more than as mysteries. Knight always starts off with a glossary of terms. The period is not romanticized, but neither is it overly repulsive.

Sir John de Wolfe went crusading with Richard the Lionheart. Now back in England, he has been appointed to the newly reconstituted office of Crowner (Coroner). He fights a pitched battle with his corrupt, treacherous brother-in-law, the Sheriff, over official territory. He is very unhappily married to Mathilda, his incompatible wife; their relationship makes sleeping in peasant huts while on duty a treat. One of the things that makes it interesting, is that although Sir John is the central character, and presumably to be regarded with sympathy, his marital problems are not entirely blamed upon his wife.

John is assisted in his duties by his gigantic man of arms, and his clerk, a frail, defrocked priest.

In this book, a sudden death is considered natural by Sir John, but the widow is convinced that it is the result of witchcraft. An amoral apothecary, eager to put herbal healers out of the competition, joins with her to whip up public controversy. There are signs of an attempted curse, but does a true Christian believe that things really are possible? ( )