“Spiteful Bones” earns 5+/5 Reliquaries...Compelling Page-Turner!
It’s 1398, and after years of struggling from his banishment from Richard II’s court and loss of everything he held dear, the former knight Crispin Guest has found much for which to be thankful: ample work as a tracker, respected in the community, a family, of sorts, and the opportunity to directly engage as father and son with Christopher Walcote. Although unable to do so publicly, he is comforted by the young man’s presence imparting some skill and knowledge and having the young man’s respect. A knock at the door heralds a plea for Crispin’s services, so with his son and apprentice Jack Tucker in tow, they head to the manor of Nigellus Cobmartin. Workman have discovered in the wall a skeleton, bound and gagged, and holding a gold and jeweled reliquary long thought stolen from Cobmartin’s father. With closer scrutiny it is revealed the skeleton to be a servant who, two decades earlier, was thought to have been the thief. The mystery is made more dire when Guest goes to review the daily records from the time finding them smoldering on the steward’s office floor. Someone, now, twenty years later, is intent on keeping the truth hidden.
Jeri Westerson’s newest Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mystery book is the fourteenth well-written and engaging adventure. The book begins with an Author’s Note, Notes About Characters, and a Glossary providing some historical context, background, and definitions that newbies and regular fans should not overlook. The drama involving my favorite element—cold cases—is complex and compelling, well-written with sensory-laden description and dialogue that does well to submerse readers in the medieval era, manners, language, and speech. The steady pace incorporates clever twists and turns, and misdirection with minimal extraneous scenes to get in the way. It’s “old school” tracking (detecting) since high-tech forensic labs are 600 years into the future.
Beyond the fascinating world and drama created, it is Westerson’s rich characters, well-fitted for the medieval setting, that have made me a fan. Crispin Guest has evolved over the series becoming a sought after resource, yet he continues to live, in contemporary terms, paycheck to paycheck. He has built a happy, yet chaotic home life, able to engage with his son and act the fun uncle with his apprentice’s children. Jack, his apprentice, has matured and is more a younger brother and business partner. But the most interesting character is John Rykener (aka Madame Eleanor Cobmartin), and by expanding the character beyond a few lines the law rolls of 1395, Westerson has created a deeply complex, loving and loyal friend. This group of characters are diverse making the medieval world familiar and easy with which to identify. I love the series, and this book was a favorite...Sam Spade medieval-style!
