The Harper's Quine - Hardcover

McIntosh, Pat

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841196959 ISBN 13: 9781841196954

Publisher: Constable, 2004

Synopsis

At the May Day dancing at Glasgow Cross, Gilbert Cunningham, notary-in-training, sees not only the woman who is going to be murdered, but her murderer as well. Gil is a recently qualified lawyer whose family still expect him to enter the priesthood. When he finds the body of a young woman in the new building at Glasgow Cathedral he is asked to investigate, and identifies the corpse as the May Day harper's mistress and runaway wife of cruel, unpleasant nobleman John Semphill. Together with Maistre Pierre, the French master-mason contracted to work on the new building at Glasgow Cathedral, Gil asks questions and seeks a murder weapon in the lanes and yards of the city, dealing with Semphill and his household, mistress and men-at-arms, the burgh constable, householders and musicians, and the mason's educated and lively daughter Alys, whom he finds increasingly attractive. A second murder seems only to complicate matters and the trail leads Gil and his new friend Maistre Pierre from Glasgow to the Isle of Bute. Gil must pursue rumours of missing silver, conflicting accounts of an elopement, and a girl with a toothache while at the time confronting his growing reluctance to embrace his family's plans for him. The mason and his daughter offer a solution, and when the killer is finally exposed, justice strikes from an unexpected direction and Gil is left to resolve his own future.

About this title

About the Author:

Pat McIntosh, like Gil Cunningham, was born and brought up in Lanarkshire and educated at the University of Glasgow. She lived in Glasgow for many years, but now resides on the coast, where she divides her time between writing and anything else which can be done with a cat on her knee.

From Publishers Weekly:

Lovers of quality historicals will welcome McIntosh's debut, a convincing whodunit set in 15th-century Glasgow. Lawyer Gilbert Cunningham, a progressive and empathic young man, is letting entropy propel him toward a life in the priesthood. His natural intelligence, curiosity and logic serve him in good stead when he stumbles across the corpse of a young woman on the grounds of a cathedral. The victim proves to be the estranged wife of a nobleman who had left him for a harper. Assisted by the forward and independent daughter of a local mason, Cunningham carefully examines forensic clues as well as the mysteries of the human heart to uncover the twisted soul responsible for a number of deaths. Impressively, the author manages to avoid false or anachronistic notes in depicting Scottish life in 1492. While some historical references will be obscure to an American audience, they don't detract from a clever plot, littered with fair clues to the puzzles. The rough justice that befalls the villain is a little contrived, but there's every reason for the legions of fans of the late Ellis Peters to anticipate the next Cunningham mystery.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Constable
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1841196959
• ISBN 13: 9781841196954
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300