Veil of Lies: A Medieval Noir
by Jeri Westerson
Published by St. Martin’s Minotaur
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Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann
This is the first in a series of medieval noir mysteries featuring disgraced English knight Crispin Guest.
Guest served Lancaster, brother of King Edward, and when Edward died he threw his support to Lancaster to take over, rather than Edward’s 10-year-old son Richard…and Guest was betrayed. King Richard II stripped him of his wealth, land, and position and cast him out.
Guest scrapes together a living serving whoever needs him, rather like a private eye, using the name “The Tracker.” He has rescued a young man, Jack, a cutpurse, who has attached himself to Guest as a servant of sorts. It is 1384, and Guest is summoned to the home of prosperous mercer Nicholas Walcotte. One of the wealthiest and most successful of the cloth merchants in London, Walcotte finds himself doubting the integrity of his beautiful young wife. He provides Guest with her portrait, and then asks him to follow her.
That very night the Tracker trails her to a seedy inn, where she meets and gives herself, almost trancelike, to a dark stranger. When he arrives the next morning to report his findings to Walcotte, the household discovers Walcotte dead in a locked room that has no other exit. Sheriff Simon Wynchecombe reluctantly allows Guest to assist him in discovering the murderer. Philippa Walcotte also asks for his help, but Guest is disconcerted to discover she was a chambermaid before Nicholas married her just three years previously. He knows she is hiding some important information.
The twists and turns in this ingenious plot involve an imposter, an Italian syndicate, customs taxes that are being siphoned off to embezzlers, spies, double agents, beatings, a toss in the Thames, and a mysterious relic, a cloth with the face of Christ which will force anyone near it to always reveal their true self.
Armchair Interviews says: You will find yourself anxiously awaiting the next installment in the tales of Crispin Guest.
Author’s Web site: http://www.JeriWesterson.com