Candace M. Robb

In 14th Century England, the actor who played Jesus in the Mercers' Guild Corpus Christi play is killed and his hand severed. Captain Archer is ordered by the Archbishop of York to find the killer. By the author of The Apothecary Rose.

In 1363 at Christmastide, two pilgrims have mysteriously died from an herbal remedy. Welshman Owen Archer is sent to the abbey in York to investigate.

Evoking the mysteries of the medieval world, author Candace Robb introduces a new series starring Kate Clifford, a woman forged on the warring borderlands of fourteenth century England. Political unrest permeates York at the cusp of the fifteenth century, as warring factions take sides on who should be the rightful king: Richard II or his powerful cousin in exile, Henry Bolingbroke. Kate Clifford is struggling to dig out from beneath the debt left by her late husband, and determined to establish her independence in a male dominated society. She turns one of her properties into a guest house, and also quietly rents the discreet bedchambers to wealthy merchants of York for nights with their mistresses. When the brutal murder of a guest and the disappearance of his companion threatens all she has built, Kate must use all her skills to save herself from ruin.