August 15, 2011
Set in 1385, Westerson’s fine fourth historical featuring disgraced knight Crispin Guest (after 2010’s The Demon’s Parchment) takes Crispin (aka “the Tracker”) to Canterbury, where he’s greeted by his old friend Geoffrey Chaucer—and where Lollard heretics have been making threats against the bones of Thomas à Becket, on display in the cathedral. The archbishop of Canterbury wants Crispin to both safeguard the sacred relics and identify the Lollards’ agent, who’s posing as a monk. When someone slays prioress Eglantine de Mooreville, one of several pilgrims visiting the town, with a sword in the cathedral, the archbishop insists the crime’s an ecclesiastical matter, not the king’s business, and orders the Tracker to find the culprit. The Agatha Christie–like solution will please puzzle buffs, while series fans will welcome the author’s efforts to further flesh out the lead and his apprentice, Jack Tucker.