Veil of lies : a medieval noir

"A great read, through and through.� Westerson's finely wrought portrait of gritty Medieval London is embued with great wit and poignancy.� Crispin Guest is a knight to remember." -- Cornelia Read, author of A Field of Darkness, on Veil of Lies. Crispin Guest is a disgraced knight, stripped of his rank and his honor - but left with his life - for plotting against Richard II.� Having lost his bethrothed, his friends, his patrons and his position in society.� With no trade to support him and no family willing to acknowledge him, Crispin has turned to the one thing he still has - his wits - to scrape a living together on the mean streets of London.� In 1383, Guest is called to the compound of a merchant - a reclusive mercer who suspects that his wife is being unfaithful and wants Guest to look into the matter.� Not wishing to sully himself in such disgraceful, dishonorable business but in dire need of money, Guest agrees and discovers that the wife is indeed up to something, presumably nothing good.� But when he comes to inform his client, he is found dead - murdered in a sealed room, locked from the inside.� Now Guest has come to the unwanted attention of the Lord Sheriff of London and most recent client was murdered while he was working for him.� And everything seems to turn on a� religious relic - a veil reported to have wiped the brow of Christ - that is now missing. From Publishers Weekly Crispin Guest, a former knight who was stripped of his rank after being implicated in a plot against Richard II, now makes his living as a tracker, the medieval equivalent of a PI, in Westerson's promising debut, set in 1384 London. Nicholas Walcote, a wealthy cloth merchant, hires Guest to investigate his younger and attractive wife, Philippa, whom he suspects of infidelity. Guest's cursory probe is derailed after his client is found stabbed to death in a locked room. Philippa retains Guest's services to find her husband's killer, who may have been motivated by Walcote's possessing a legendary relic reputed to force those in its proximity to tell the truth. While featuring a hard-boiled medieval sleuth instead of a monk or a nun may not be quite as groundbreaking as the author suggests in her afterword (e.g., Susanna Gregory's 14th-century Cambridge physician Matthew Bartholomew), this is nonetheless an entertaining read that makes the prospect of sequels welcome. (Nov.) Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist What is a disgraced knight qualified to do? Westerson answers this pressing question in a promising debut featuring reluctant sleuth Crispin Guest. After Guest is accused of treason and stripped of his rank, he uses his considerable powers of deduction to earn a meager living as a �tracker.� Desperate to pay his rent and his long overdue tavern bill, he accepts a less than savory offer to spy on the wife of a prosperous merchant. When his client is discovered dead in a locked room, Guest must unravel an intricate plot involving a missing religious relic in order to save himself. This authentically detailed medieval mystery has an intriguingly dark edge that will appeal to fans of both historical fiction and noir. --Margaret Flanagan

"A great read, through and through. Westerson's finely wrought portrait of gritty Medieval London is embued with great wit and poignancy. Crispin Guest is a knight to remember." -- Cornelia Read, author of A Field of Darkness, on Veil of Lies.

Crispin Guest is a disgraced knight, stripped of his rank and his honor - but left with his life - for plotting against Richard II. Having lost his bethrothed, his friends, his patrons and his position in society. With no trade to support him and no family willing to acknowledge him, Crispin has turned to the one thing he still has - his wits - to scrape a living together on the mean streets of London. In 1383, Guest is called to the compound of a merchant - a reclusive mercer who suspects that his wife is being unfaithful and wants Guest to look into the matter. Not wishing to sully himself in such disgraceful, dishonorable business but in dire need of money, Guest agrees and discovers that the wife is indeed up to something, presumably nothing good. But when he comes to inform his client, he is found dead - murdered in a sealed room, locked from the inside. Now Guest has come to the unwanted attention of the Lord Sheriff of London and most recent client was murdered while he was working for him. And everything seems to turn on a religious relic - a veil reported to have wiped the brow of Christ - that is now missing.

"In 1384, Crispin is called to the compound of a successful but reclusive cloth merchant who suspects his wife of infidelity and wants Crispin to look into the matter. In dire need of money, Crispin reluctantly agrees and discovers that the wife is indeed up to something. But when he comes to inform his client, he finds the merchant dead - clearly murdered - in a sealed room, locked from the inside. Now Crispin has come to the unwanted attention of the Lord Sheriff of London and finds himself in the middle of a complex plot involving dark secrets, international intrigue, and a missing religious relic - one that lies at the very heart of this heinous and impossible crime."--Jacket "In late fourteenth-century England, Crispin Guest is a man adrift in a culture where position is rigidly defined. Guest - once a knight, a member of the upper tiers of society - was convicted of treason and stripped of his rank and his honor for plotting against King Richard II. Having lost his patron, his friends, his betrothed, and his position at court, and with no trade to support him and no family willing to acknowledge him, Crispin has turned to the one thing he still has - his wits - to scrape out a living on the mean streets of London."