The Midnight Man: The Physician’s Tale of Mystery and Murder as He Goes on a Pilgrimage from London to Canterbury

In Doherty’s solid seventh Canterbury Tales medieval mystery (after 2009’s A Haunt of Murder), the physician delivers a blood-curdling account of the depredations of the so-called Midnight Man, described as “a warlock well-served by the knights of hell.” Doherty doesn’t stint on the number of puzzles Brother Anselm, principal exorcist to the archbishop of Canterbury, has to unravel. They include a locked-room murder, the apparent haunting of a church by ghosts, the question of whether the activities of the Midnight Man’s coven are connected with some missing buried treasure, and the disappearance of young women in the vicinity. Despite the number of balls in the air, Doherty drops nary a one as he provides another intriguing look at the past through the lens of a murder inquiry. Agent: Christopher Sinclair Stevenson. (Sept.)