1312. Sir Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the Secret Seal, has returned from the West Country to find Westminster in chaos. Edward II has fled in an attempt to protect his favourite from the wrath of his noblemen; and a royal clerk has been found dead, poisoned in a locked chamber. Drawn into a maze of murder both at Westminster and at the Convent of Saint Sulpice, where young novices have started to disappear, Corbett quickly establishes a connection between...

"December, 1380. When the corpse of Sir Robert Kilverby, a wealthy Cheapside merchant is discovered in a locked room, Brother Athelstan accompanies the King's coroner to investigate. For the late Sir Robert had in his possession a priceless relic, a sacred bloodstone which he was planning to donate to the Abbey of St Fulcher-on-Thames. The bloodstone has disappeared and the Regent, John of Gaunt, who covets the relic for himself, is taking an uncomfortably...