Customer Reviews

The Noble Outlaw (Crowner John Mysteries)

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Professor Bernard Knight, CBE, became a Home Office Pathologist in 1965 and was appointed Professor of Forensic Pathology, University of Wales College of Medicine, in 1980. He has now written eleven books in the much read Crowner John series and Bernard Knight is certainly one of my favourite authors among those who write medieval mysteries.

Crowner John or to give him his correct title, Sir John de Wolfe, is one of my all time favourite characters in medieval mysteries and if you read or are going to read this or any other of Bernard Knight's Crowner John Mysteries, you will probably understand why.. Dour and more than a little fierce looking but totally honest and incorruptible and a staunch follower of King Richard the Lionheart. He is the total opposite of his brother-in-law the ex-Sheriff of Exeter, apart from the fact that the both have an eye for the ladies.

The place is Exeter, the year 1195. Renovations are taking place at the new school in Smythen Street, a school funded by Crowner John's brother-in-law and ex-sheriff Richard de Revelle. A partially decomposed body is found in the loft of one of the out-buildings. John as Coroner is called to investigate. When it becomes apparent that the dead man is the missing treasurer of the guild of Cordwainers, de Revelle immediately seeks to put the blame on a young outlaw, a Cornish knight by the name of Nicholas de Arundell whose Devon manor the wily ex-sheriff has appropriated while Arundell was away at the Crusades.

Richard claims that the body has been dumped there in order to discredit his new school. The investigation becomes even more complex when another guild-master is found dead on the road from Tavistock to Exeter. Is Nicholas de Arundell, really responsible for the deaths, or is the ex-sheriff just putting up a smoke screen to confuse Crowner John?

This historical mystery by an excellent multi-talented author made me break a promise and that was to read slower. Here is a man who has known war, been through the hard times of life, been an excellent medical professional for many years, not to mention of bit of farming too, and still finds time to write truly historical pieces and not just emotional figments of the imagination. As long as Knight keeps writing, I will still keep reading. I am glad that M. Jecks writes in the period shortly afterward so that you not only get good mystery writing from both, but good historical sense. Any typos in the books are not the writers fault, but proof readers placing too much on "spell check" (a word may be spelt correctly, but is it the word the author wanted or used?)

Town of Exeter, England, 1195, Sir John de Wolfe, county Coroner (or "Crowner" or Keeper of Pleas of the Crown--in charge of administering the law as far as holding inquests, collecting fees, investigating unnatural deaths and crimes, etc.), is called when a desiccated several-months old corpse is found in a school building that was being renovated. A large nail in the spine reveals the man was murdered. The owner of the school is John's brother-in-law, the border-line traitorous Richard de Revelle, who claims the man was put there to disrupt the success of his school, which he hopes will compete with those becoming established at Oxford and other towns. Suspicion is also cast upon a noble outlaw who roams the wilds of Dartmoor with his followers. With his man, the giant Cornishman Gwyn, John investigates the deaths, as well as the matter of the Outlaw, who seems to be a fellow Crusader who may have been unjustly treated and the nefarious doings of his brother-in-law, who is a follower of Prince John rather than King Richard.

I loved the details of daily life that are carefully depicted in this tale. The characters and the situation felt very true to life and to the period while remaining understandable and likable. John is a dour man, but straight-forward in his desire to do right by his duty. He's got a wife whom he doesn't really get along with and a long-time lover whom he does, and while they feature in the tale, it's so nice that they don't do anything unbelievable like insist on helping with the mystery!

This has been a long-running series, but the first book I've read, and I must say that I found it a good mystery with great insight into the period, which is what I like in a historical mystery.

This review applies to the audio version.

#11 Crowner John historical mystery set in Devon, UK in 1195. A desiccated corpse is found in an old forge being renovated into a school, and due to the length of time he's been dead, the only thing clear is that the man was murdered--a nail protrudes from his neck. Eventually the Coroner and his assistants track down his identity, but shortly thereafter, two other--fresher--bodies killed and displayed in gruesome ways, are found. The men were all prominent tradesmen, leaders of their respective guilds.

And then John's wife Matilda is brutally attacked on her way home from Christmas Mass, the attacker whispering to her that the killings were revenge killings against her brother, former Sheriff Richard de Revelle, and that he'll be getting his soon enough. The finger points most strongly to a man who was declared outlaw at the behest of Richard, who then seized his lands and property, but Crowner wonders if someone is deliberately pointing him in that direction--and then he learns that the outlaw "Nick of the Moor" has a wife who's been staying with family in Exeter and that she is Matilda's new friend from church. Once the Crowner gets to meet the outlaw and hear his story, he is determined to bring his case before the King, or at least the Lord Justiciar.

This is the first of this series that I've listened to in audio format, and have quite enjoyed it. The reader is very good, skillfully telling the story and doing an excellent job with a myriad of different voices and accents. The series itself I always find enjoyable, and the author manages to impart a lot of historical detail and information such that I'm learning things without realizing it as the story goes on.

Book and contents are very good. Bernard Knight has you smelling and feeling the living conditions.