Murder Most Treasonable: A Brother Athelstan Mystery

Doherty’s 22nd whodunit featuring 14th-century friar Athelstan (after The Hanging Tree) is as fresh as ever. England’s King Richard II, attempting to realize his ancestors’ imperial ambitions, has set his sights on the French crown. With the two nations maintaining a fragile peace, a series of murders and intelligence breaches threaten to spark an all-out war. England’s spy chief, Master Thibault, has been relying on information from Nightingale, a mole in the French court in Paris, to maintain a civil relationship with the country. Soon after Nightingale warns Thibault that the French have sent some of their most dangerous agents to England, his espionage network is disrupted by the disappearance of several informants. Then two of Thibault’s own clerks are murdered, one in a chamber locked and bolted from the inside. Sir John Cranston, London’s Lord High Coroner, asks his friend, Athelstan, to help him investigate the killings, and any possible connections they may have to the international tensions. As he digs into the case, Athelstan turns up chilling evidence that the British may have a mole on their hands. Doherty doles out clues shrewdly and decorates the narrative with his characteristically sharp period details. This long-running series has yet to show signs of slowing down. (Nov.)