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    Season of Blood: A medieval mystery
    Unavailable
    Season of Blood: A medieval mystery
    Unavailable
    Season of Blood: A medieval mystery
    Ebook308 pages4 hours

    Season of Blood: A medieval mystery

    By Jeri Westerson

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A missing Holy Relic. A mysterious and beautiful woman. Two murdered monks: Crispin Guest tackles his most intriguing investigation to date.

    1390. Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire, England. Two monks lie murdered, their Holy Blood relic stolen: a relic that is said to run liquid for the sinless and remain stubbornly dry for the sinner. Unwilling to become involved in a bitter dispute between a country monastery and Westminster Abbey, the disgraced former knight Crispin Guest attempts to return the relic to Hailes where it belongs, but somehow it keeps returning to his hands no matter what.

    As he tries to shield a former nemesis from a charge of murder while becoming entangled with a mysterious and beautiful woman caught between Church politics and the dangerous intrigues of King Richard's court, Crispin begins to suspect that someone at Westminster is conspiring with the assassins. Can the Blood of Christ point to the killer?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSevern House Publishers
    Release dateDec 24, 2017
    ISBN9781780109251
    Unavailable
    Season of Blood: A medieval mystery
    Author

    Jeri Westerson

    Jeri Westerson was born and raised in Los Angeles. As well as nine previous Crispin Guest medieval mysteries, she is the author of a paranormal urban fantasy series and several historical novels. Her books have been nominated for the Shamus, the Macavity and the Agatha awards.

    Read more from Jeri Westerson

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    Reviews for Season of Blood

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Although the blurb is a bit over the top in referring to it as "medieval noir" (nothing really noirish about it except a femme fatale), its an interesting and entertaining piece of medieval crime fiction. Crispin Guest, once a knight of the court, now disgraced and pursuing a living as The Tracker, gets caught up in a series of murders of monks, the crimes apparently revolving around a sacred relic, the Holy Blood. Guest has to deal with a hated foe who is now in deep trouble, a bewitching female cat burglar, and a series of monks who know more than they are letting on, ably assisted by his faithful assistant Jack Tucker and the agile cross-dresser John Rykener as he attempst to return the Holy Blood to its rightful owner. Nothing startlingly sensnational, but the writing is strong, the plotting crisp and the characters entertaining. I really enjoyed and look forward to reading more in the series.
    • 3/5
      I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Crispin Guest stories. In some ways I like the concept, and find Crispin an intriguing character, but in other ways they really annoy and grate on me. Crispin can be sleeping with a woman one minute and her trying to kill him the next, and you always know that woman he get off with is going to be treacherous/backstabbing or double dealing in some way.

      The mysteries themselves are rarely predictable but that aspect of the stories very much is. Personally, I do feel that not all the characters beliefs or ideas are consistent with the time period.
      Some characters also seem superfluous to me. For example, John Rykener. I can understand his occasional appearance, but he seems to be in every single book now. I do believe his presence has a little bit- dare I say- tokenistic?

      Its interesting to follow the development of characters like Jack though, and if the author continues this series, will be interesting to see how the eventual deposition of Richard II will be handled, and what impact it will have for Cripin.
    • 5/5
      Crispin at his best!Once again, The Tracker, Crispin Guest is dogged by a mysterious holy relic. This time 'the Holy Blood of Hailes.' A Ciscurcian monk arrives at Crispin's door with a dagger in his back, and a holy relic in his hand! And that's not all, Crispin recognizes the dagger. And so it begins.Why is it that these mysteries gravitate towards him? At one stage Crispin grimly ponders that, 'Nothing good ever came from association with relics, at least not for him. It was damnable how they kept turning up at his door.' As does a dead White monk of the Cistercian order just to add spice and intrigue. There seems to be a veritable plague of monks imbedded in this Tracker episode.And let's not forget the last words of Crispin's friend Abbot Nicholas, ' ‘Forget what you think you know … Beware of what you find …’ ' words that haunt Crispin more than the relics. What will Crispin find and what is he really searching for? This is our ongoing exploration of Crispin, his strengths and failings, his personhood.Jack Tucker is back, now a betrothed young man whose words of wisdom have occasion to bring Crispin up short. John Rykener appears (one of my favorite characters) and, most unexpectedly, the ex sheriff of London, no friend to Crispin, Simon Wynchecombe turns to the Tracker for help.On top of this a rather mysterious woman enters Crispin's life and turns it upside down.Another enthralling read. I continue to enjoy the interplay between Crispin and Jack Tucker. I love their verbal sparring, spiced with references to Aristotle and much grumbling from Jack. As always, Westerson's prose brings the streets of 1390's London vividly to life.A NetGalley ARC
    • 4/5
      This mystery was sent to me by Severn Press via NetGalley. Thank you.Tracker Crispin Guest is interviewing a very pretty new client who wants to find her missing niece when a knock at the door presents him with a Cistercian monk mumbling his name. The man dies before he can utter another sound, the victim of a stabbing. And Crispin recognizes the murder weapon! It is none other than the dagger owned by his nemesis Simon Wynchecombe. After his prospective client flees the bloody scene and the sheriffs are duly informed of the crime, Crispin finds a curious object apparently dropped by the dying monk. It is none other than a reliquary containing the True Blood of Christ which should be in Hailes Abbey. So begins another very enjoyable tale in the career of disgraced former knight and current medieval detective Crispin Guest. As he follows the clues to who murdered the Cistercian and why the relic is not where it belongs, he comes across more and more murdered white monks. The puzzle becomes more complex when the rivalry between Westminster Abbey and Hailes Abbey over which pilgrimage site has the better vial of Christ’s blood is revealed. (Hailes’ blood becomes liquid when viewed by true repentants and Westminster’s blood remains a rust-colored smudge no matter who views it, saints or sinners.)And it doesn’t take Crispin long to figure out that his enticing young aunt is somehow involved in the whole business. Crispin and his apprentice Jack Tucker, along with friends and enemies from earlier adventures, travel from London to Hailes and back again to find the answers. And Crispin may have met his own Irene Adler!A most entertaining addition to Crispin’s canon.
    • 3/5
      1390 London and Crispon Guest is followed home by an unknown female who wishes to employ himto find her niece. Their meeting is disturbed by a monk with a dagger in his back. Holy relics, monks, ex-sheriffs abound but its Guest who must find the guilty parties.
      An enjoyable mystery, which I liked but did not love. Not too sure I cared much for some of the characters but I might go back to the start of the series. This can certainly be read as a standalone novel.
      A NetGalley Book