A violent past haunts Sir Walter Maltravers, the wealthy lord of Ingoldby Hall. As a commander during the War of the Roses, he fought alongside Edward IV at the bloody, fratricidal Battle of Towton. Decades earlier, and thousands of miles away, he served in the fanatical bodyguard of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaeologus. There, as Turkish Jannisaries breached Constantinople’s walls and set the city aflame, Sir Walter committed what may have been an unforgivable sin: instead of defending the emperor with his last drop of blood, Maltravers fled. But not before scooping up all the treasure he could carry, including the Lacrima Christi---a giant ruby said to be a holy relic of incalculable value. When the ruby disappears from Canterbury’s Franciscan monastery, Sir Walter fears the emperor’s vengeful loyalists---the Athanatoi---have tracked him to his estate. He doesn’t have much time to ponder his dilemma. Crawling on his bare knees to the shrine at the center of his enormous private hedge maze, the penitent Sir Walter encounters his axe-wielding killer. . . . Maltravers’s head turns up days later, impaled on a pole. Gossips in Canterbury whisper of the fabled Athanatoi, come to claim their bloody due from a traitor. But apothecary Kathryn Swinbrooke doesn’t think so. Her Irish fiancée, Colum Murtagh, the King’s Commissioner in Canterbury, is called in to investigate the crimes. A Renaissance woman in a Middle Age world, Swinbroke comes to believe that all is not as it seems within the cozy confines of Ingoldby Hall. She asks tough questions of the wealthy power-players who seem to hover around the murder case. And before long, the death toll mounts: a maid, a madwoman, a scribe, a retainer. . . . One thing becomes abundantly clear: if Swinbrooke and Murtagh don’t nail down the killer---or killers---soon, they’ll be next!

A series of poisoned pilgrims requires the services of Canterbury's most intrepid sleuth.. . Paul Doherty introduces his medieval sleuth Kathryn Swinbrooke for the first time in A Shrine of Murders, the first in a gripping mystery series from the acclaimed historical novelist. Perfect for fans of Ellis Peters and Susanna Gregory. A serial killer haunts 15th-century Canterbury. Kathryn Swinbrooke is an independent practitioner of medicine, discovering the benefits of an apple-rich diet for teeth, and prescribing herbs and vinegar for almost every known malady. Canterbury's tourist trade, already jeopardized by the War of the Roses, is further imperilled by a spate of poisoned pilgrims, each corpse accompanied by the appearance of a line or two of rough verse, in style remarkably similar to Geoffrey Chaucer's soon-to-be famous work. Suspecting the murderer is a doctor, the Archbishop asks for Kathryn's help. In a fascinating hunt that pits her against the august town physicians, Kathryn is aided only by her wits, her foul-mouthed, warm-hearted servant Thomasina, and Colum Murtagh, a powerful Irish mercenary. What readers are saying about A Shrine of Murders: 'This is well researched, well written and a good story to curl up with on a dark winter's evening' 'Paul Doherty is a superb writer' 'Superb plot and characters. Kathryn is so interesting and insight into the history of the time is so well documented. You feel as if you were there and can even smell it!'

Physician and chemist Kathryn Swinbrooke of Canterbury, England, returns in her second medieval mystery to investigate, with soldier Colum Murtagh, a series of murders connected with the disappearence of a royal relic, the Eye of God

Continues the unlikely partnership of physician Kathryn Swinbrooke and soldier Colum Murtagh as a painter confesses to murder and Kathryn and Colum are trapped with a killer

When necromancer and blackmailer Tenebrae is found murdered, medieval physician and herbalist Kathryn Swinbrooke is called to the scene and attempts to solve a locked-room scenerio in which all present seem to be innocent