Treason abounds!

Murder Most Treasonable by Paul Doherty (Brother Athelstan Mystery #22) 

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England at the time of King Richard and John of Gaunt. The English have a spy ring spread across Paris.  It’s being decimated. Head of the Paris organization, the spy Nightingale, flees to England, to his Master of the secret English chamber. Master Thibault and his Secret Chancery. France has its equivalence, the Chamber Noir.

Somehow secrets are being taken out of from the well guarded repository in London and being sent to France. Treason is at hand.

Brother Athelstan, Dominican Parish Priest of St Erconwald’s in Southwark, and his friend Lord High Coroner of the City of London, are in danger. They are required for an investigation into the death of Hugh Norwic, principal clerk in the Secret Chancery. A price has been put on their heads. They are being attacked on two sides, by agitators asking questions about Radix Malorum, the king of housebreakers, and they’re being hunted down by a secret French cabal, Luciferi.

Efforts have been made on their lives as they search for answers to not one but two locked room mysteries.

Athelstan and his beloved but motley crew of parishioners, as always are part of the story. This  tale deals more with treachery between kingdoms, although his parishioners run close to the edges.

Athelstan has important dealings with the barge master Moleskin and his crew as a battle breaks out on the Thames. The river is a treacherous place.

Intrigue, darkness and the ravages of decisions made twenty years ago are some of the factors in this story and we are left wondering. More is to come but what? Is there still an uncovered traitor?

Another solid and illuminating tale from Doherty, exploring the tensions between England and France at this time. Many treacheries haunt the night, treacheries that trickle down even to Athelstan’s small parish.

A Severn Press ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.