Crown in Darkness (A Medieval Mystery Featuring Hugh Corbett) - Softcover

Paul C. Doherty

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747235058 ISBN 13: 9780747235057

Publisher: Headline Book Publishing, 1991

Synopsis

1286 and on a storm-ridden night King Alexander III of Scotland is riding across the Firth of Forth to meet his beautiful French bride Yolande. He never reaches his final destination as his horse mysteriously slips, sending them both crashing to their death on cruel rocks. The Scottish throne is left vacant of any real heir and immediately the great European princes and the powerful nobles of Alexander's kingdom start fighting for the glittering prize. The Chancellor of England, Burnell, ever mindful of the interest his king, Edward I, has in Scotland, sends his faithful clerk, Hugh Corbett, to report on the chaotic situation at the Scottish court. Concerned that a connection exists between the king's death and those now desirous of taking the Scottish throne, Corbett is drawn into a maelstrom of intrigue, conspiracy and danger.

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Doherty was born in Middlesbrough. He studied History at Liverpool and Oxford Universities and obtained a doctorate for his thesis on Edward II and Queen Isabella. He is now headmaster of a school in north-east London and lives with his family in Essex.

From Publishers Weekly:

When Hugh Corbett, legal adviser and clerk to the Chancellor of England, is sent to Scotland in the wretchedly cold spring of 1286 to investigate the death of King Alexander III, he is met with hostility, suspicion and murderous rage. Did King Alexander dash off on a furiously stormy night to visit his young French bride and accidentally plunge from a cliff to his death below? Or perhaps his fall was the result of scheming and plotting by ambitious nobles, including the power-hungry Robert Bruce. When the careful and secretive Corbett begins asking pointed questions he is arrested on a trumped-up charge of treason and murder; after his release he is the target of assassination attempts. He begins to make progress in his quest only when he joins forces with Bishop Wishart of Glasgow. Doherty (The Death of a King) brings the harsh medieval landscape of Scotland to vivid life, particularly its gritty and malodorous cities, its wildly beautiful countryside and its population of devout, enigmatic or sinister characters. Yet, a superfluity of historical explanations and far too much laborious speculation on Corbett's part slow the book's pace to a quiet crawl.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Headline Book Publishing
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0747235058
• ISBN 13: 9780747235057
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 187