Autumn, 1282

As Edward I wages a bloody conflict with Wales, Prioress Eleanor escorts her younger brother, Robert, and his wife, who is in labor, from their Marcher lands to greater safety at a Wynethorpe manor in a village just inside the English border. They are joined by Brother Thomas, the Prioress's trusted friend, and Sister Anne, who helps navigate the difficult birth and delivers a baby girl.

Mother and child may be healthy, but Death never wanders far from this beloved Prioress—whether she's home at Tyndal in Norfolk or traveling the realm. The local abbot begs her help—the village priest has been found dead and standing over him is, a reliable witness says, the ghost of Hywel, the village stonemason who was recently hanged for slaying some sleeping English soldiers.

Bone tired, Brother Thomas questions the village hangman, who assures him that Hywel was hanged once and then, when the weight of the fat felon strung up alongside him broke the beam of the gallows, was hanged again. The experienced executioner checked all the bodily signs—Hywel was dead. But where is his grave? And what secrets are the mysterious locals keeping from the outsiders visiting their troubled home?

Priscilla Royal, author of fourteen books from Poisoned Pen Press in the Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas medieval mystery series, grew up in British Columbia and earned a BA in World Literature at San Francisco State University where she discovered the beauty of medieval literature. Before retiring from the Federal Government in 2000, she worked in a variety of jobs, all of which provided an excellent education in the complexity of human experience and motivation. She is a theater fan as well as a reader of history, mystery, and fiction of lesser violence. When not hiding in the thirteenth century, she lives in Northern California and is a member of California Writers Club, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime.

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"Prioress Eleanor returns in another of Royal's historically detailed and expertly executed medieval whodunits. This fifteenth entry featuring Eleanor and Brother Thomas once again features a main mystery as well as intriguing subplots involving the series' recurring characters." — Booklist

"The 15th adventure for Royal's clever, conflicted prioress continues her mastery of the medieval, provides a mystery that's twisty but not impenetrable, and advances the ongoing story of the problematic sexual relationships of the continuing cast." — Kirkus Reviews

"Edward I’s England is again at war with Wales in Royal’s excellent 15th whodunit set in 13th-century Britain. Royal seamlessly integrates historical events into what stands as one her best puzzles, the most Agatha Christie–like in terms of motive." — Publishers Weekly STARRED Review