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    Witch Hunter, The
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    Witch Hunter, The
    Unavailable
    Witch Hunter, The
    Ebook407 pages7 hours

    Witch Hunter, The

    By Bernard Knight

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Coroner Sir John investigates an alleged murder by witchcraft in this page-turning instalment in the Crowner John medieval mystery series, set in twelfth-century England.

    Exeter, 1195. When a prominent guild-master falls dead across his horse, county coroner Sir John de Wolfe declines to hold an inquest. The man had been complaining of chest pains, and Sir John believes it a clear-cut case of death from natural causes. But events take a sinister turn when a straw doll is discovered hidden under the dead man’s saddle, a thin metal spike piercing its heart.

    Convinced her husband’s death was caused by an evil spell, the victim’s strident widow begins a campaign against witchcraft and the so-called ‘cunning women’ who practise it. Soon Exeter is in turmoil, a hysterical mob has formed and several local women are in danger.

    Still the coroner refuses to get involved – until his mistress is accused of witchcraft. If Crowner John can’t discover the real cause of the merchant’s death and unearth the culprit quickly, his beloved Nesta may soon swing from the hangman’s noose . . .
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSevern House Publishers
    Release dateFeb 1, 2015
    ISBN9781448301409
    Unavailable
    Witch Hunter, The
    Author

    Bernard Knight

    Bernard Knight is a retired Home Office pathologist renowned for his work on such high-profile cases as the Fred and Rosemary West murders. Bernard is the author of the ‘Crowner John’ series, as well as the Dr Richard Pryor forensic mystery series.

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    Reviews for Witch Hunter, The

    3.5/5

    35 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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?
    • 2/5
      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.