Murder at Whitby Abbey

Murder at Whitby Abbey

Cassandra Clark

Cassandra Clark

Late December, 1389. Ordered to undertake a gruelling three-day journey to bleak Whitby Abbey in the far north of England in a bid to purchase the Abbey's priceless Holy Relic – a lock of St Hild's hair, said to be 700 years old – Hildegard of Meaux and her three companion monks arrive to find the Abbey a decidedly unwelcoming place, a place of strange customs and practices very different to their modest lifestyle at Meaux. Nor, as Hildegard discovers, is she the only visitor intent on acquiring the Relic. Before the bidding war can begin, a body is discovered in the monastery's apple store shed, and once again Hildegard is plunged into a baffling murder investigation where nothing is as it first appears. Something is rotten in the heart of Whitby Abbey – and it's up to Hildegard to discover the truth.
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The Hour of the Fox

The Hour of the Fox

Cassandra Clark

Cassandra Clark

Introducing reluctant spy and friar-sleuth Brother Rodric Chandler in the first of a brand-new medieval mystery series. London. July, 1399. As rumours spread that his ambitious cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, has returned from exile in France, King Richard's grip on the English throne grows ever more precarious. Meanwhile, the body of a young woman is discovered at Dowgate sluice. When it's established that the dead woman was a novice from nearby Barking Abbey, the coroner calls in his friend, Brother Chandler, to investigate. Who would cut the throat of a young nun and throw her remains in the river? And what was she doing outside the confines of the priory in the first place? Secretly acting as a spy for Henry Bolingbroke, Chandler is torn by conflicting loyalties and agonising self-doubt. As the king's cousin marches towards Wales and England teeters on the brink of civil war, Chandler's investigations will draw him into affairs of state – and...
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The Red Velvet Turnshoe

The Red Velvet Turnshoe

Cassandra Clark

Cassandra Clark

In the midst of a long, bleak winter in the year 1383, flooding brought famine, famine brought disease, and The Black Death visited town after town. Into this watery world, against a background of plague and the turmoil of the Hundred Years' War, a brave and brilliant nun, Abbess Hildegard, embarks on a quest for a precious relic, the Cross of Constantine. Strong-willed and independent, she will need remarkable skills to survive. For with the English Crown at stake, there are many who want her mission to fail--and one, above all, who plans a deadly revenge.
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The Scandal of the Skulls

The Scandal of the Skulls

Cassandra Clark

Cassandra Clark

Murder and mayhem engulf Hildegard of Meaux and sexy abbot Hubert de Courcy in a seventh mystery as soon as they get back from Avignon. They arrive secretly on the English coast, in a storm, at dead of night. Why the secrecy? Because the duke of Gloucester, head of the King's Council in Westminster, is savagely condemning every single one of young King Richard's allies to death at The Merciless Parliament. Even his tutor, the nationally beloved Sir Simon Burley, is in the Tower awaiting execution. Outraged by Gloucester's cold ambition and diabolical cunning, Hildegard is willingly drawn into a plot to free Sir Simon by the ambiguous knight in grey. Meanwhile, an apprentice is found hanging from a rope in Salisbury Cathedral. Are both events linked and if so, how? Hildegard defies death to discover the truth.
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A Parliament of Spies

A Parliament of Spies

Cassandra Clark

Cassandra Clark

All the danger and intrigue of 14th-century England spring to life in this "compelling" (Publishers Weekly) series about the brave, incorruptible Abbess of Meaux.Abbess Hildegard may consider herself "just a nun with no useful skills or connections," yet her loyalty and intelligence have brought her to the attention of King Richard II himself—not the safest place to be, when the king has enemies on all sides. As Hildegard wrestles with her role as a spy in the parliament that is hastily gathering at Westminster, Cassandra Clark's A Parliament of Spies shows us the human side of history, giving readers new reason to follow Publishers Weekly's rallying cry: "Medievalists rejoice!"
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Hangman Blind

Hangman Blind

Cassandra Clark

Cassandra Clark

In November 1382, the month of the dead, Abbess Hildegard rides out for York from the Abbey of Meaux. This is no ordinary journey—it is a time of rival popes, a boy king, and a shaky peace in the savage aftermath of Wat Tyler’s murder—and Hildegard has embarked on a perilous mission to try to secure the future of her priory. Traveling alone, she discovers danger, encountering first a gibbet with five bloodied corpses and then the body of a youth, brutally butchered. Who was the boy, how was he connected to the men hanging from the gibbet, and what do these gruesome deaths mean? Hildegard is determined to uncover the truth, no matter how terrible it may be. When even her childhood home, Castle Hutton, turns out not to be a safe haven from murder, Hildegard realizes she will have to summon all of her courage and wisdom to counter the dark forces that threaten her friends and family as well as her country.
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The Dragon of Handale A Mystery

The Dragon of Handale A Mystery

Cassandra Clark

Cassandra Clark

Hildegard, no longer a member of the Cistercian order of nuns, has returned to the priory after more than a year from her pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Still unsure whether she will rejoin the Order, the Prioress suggests that a visit to Handale Priory might help provide some clarity. Used as a house of correction for sinning nuns, it lies in the north of the county in the middle of a vast wood and is run by the ambiguous Abbess Basilda and her close group of hard-faced acolytes. While walking about the grounds, Hildegard discovers the corpse of a young man in the morgue. His body bears deep gashes from neck to groin. His wounds appear to be the ravages of claws, but larger than any animal Hildegard knows of.  Is it possible that the young man was killed by a dragon, as Hildegard's been told? Of course, Hildegard does not believe in dragons, and despite being warned against it, she goes for a walk in the woods. There she discovers a secret tower, locked and barred, with armed men on guard. What is so valuable that it needs such protection? Has it anything to do with the mystery of the young man's death? And why have assassins been pursuing the King's courier across the savage moor land only to murder him at a lonely wayside tavern? Hildegard risks all dangers to seek out the truth. The Dragon of Handale is the fourth novel in Cassandra Clark's acclaimed mystery series set in the 14th century.**
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The Law of Angels

The Law of Angels

Cassandra Clark

Cassandra Clark

York, 1385. Just as the Mystery Plays are about to unfold, a young woman witnesses a terrible crime and turns to Abbess Hildegard of Meaux for protection. In The Law of Angels, Cassandra Clark once again shows us the human side of history, giving readers new reason to follow Publishers Weekly's rallying cry: "Medievalists rejoice!"
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