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    Unavailable
    Candle Flame: A novel of Mediaeval London featuring Brother Athelstan
    Unavailable
    Candle Flame: A novel of Mediaeval London featuring Brother Athelstan
    Unavailable
    Candle Flame: A novel of Mediaeval London featuring Brother Athelstan
    Ebook307 pages6 hours

    Candle Flame: A novel of Mediaeval London featuring Brother Athelstan

    By Paul Doherty

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    An intriguing medieval mystery featuring Brother Athelstan

    February, 1381. London lies frozen in the grip of one of the bitterest winters on record. The ever-rising taxes demanded by the Regent, John of Gaunt, are causing increasing resentment among the city’s poor. When the seething unrest boils over into a bloody massacre at a splendid Southwark tavern, The Candle Flame, in which nine people, including Gaunt’s tax collectors, their military escort and the prostitutes entertaining them, are brutally murdered, the furious Regent orders Brother Athelstan to get to the bottom of the matter.

    For not only has Gaunt’s treasure trove been stolen, he has reason to believe a French spy is active along the Thames, carefully recording for his masters in the Louvre the state of English war cogs. And a professional assassin, Beowulf, who has sworn vengeance against Gaunt and his minions, also stalks the shadows. Once again, Athelstan must enter the murky world of murder, where the darkness constantly shifts and no one is who or what they seem.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSevern House Publishers
    Release dateJul 1, 2014
    ISBN9781780105253
    Unavailable
    Candle Flame: A novel of Mediaeval London featuring Brother Athelstan
    Author

    Paul Doherty

    Paul Doherty has written over 100 books and was awarded the Herodotus Award, for lifelong achievement for excellence in the writing of historical mysteries by the Historical Mystery Appreciation Society. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages and include the historical mysteries of Brother Athelstan and Hugh Corbett. paulcdoherty.com

    Read more from Paul Doherty

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    Reviews for Candle Flame

    3.5/5

    8 ratings1 review

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    • 2/5
      Where I got the book: review copy provided by the publisher.This medieval murder mystery, set in 1381, takes us to the restless, dangerous Southwark district of London where a massacre is committed in the Barbican, the ancient keep adjoining the Candle-Flame tavern. John of Gaunt’s poll tax collector, his associates and guard are murdered in a locked room, and a large amount of gold goes missing. As more deaths follow, Brother Athelstan, Dominican friar and coroner’s clerk, is ready to listen to those who connect the murders to popular unrest and the rise of an avenger nicknamed Beowulf, but takes careful note of the other travelers in the inn and of the French threat to London.This mystery began with a long prologue setting out the historical context and continued with a methodical exposition of clues. This will please readers who like to puzzle out a mystery in an orderly manner, but I found the long passages of exposition hard going, particularly as there were few paragraph breaks in the text and the chapters were extremely long. Much local color was provided that was fascinating but failed to advance the plot.As the story proceeded there was more dialogue and it became easier to read, and by the end I could see the mystery was well plotted and had worked in a great deal of history. Candle Flame will reward the persistent, detail-oriented reader, but for my taste I felt it suffered from overmuch minutiae.