What do you think?
Rate this book
Stories told on Pilgrimage from London to Canterbury #4
Ghostly Murders (Canterbury Tales Mysteries, Book 4): Greed, devilish murder and chilling hauntings in medieval England
To escape an evil curse, a terrible price must be paid...Paul Doherty relates the Priest's tale in Ghostly Murders - a tale of mystery and murder as he goes on pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. Perfect for fans of Ellis Peters and Susanna Gregory.As Chaucer's pilgrims shelter in the ruins of a church, the poor Priest narrates his mysterious tale. Young Philip Trumpington, the new Scawsby parish priest, finds that the old church harbours shocking secrets. Years earlier, some Templars were massacred on the marshes, their attackers led by Romenal, a former Scawsby vicar. Philip discovers the old church is haunted by 'The Watchers' and the villagers are scarred by a terrible curse. An ancient evil must be resolved and reparation made. But the price will be great...What readers are saying about Canterbury Tales 'I found it a brilliant, mystifying tale and was hooked from beginning to end''Mr Doherty excels himself with this spine chilling medieval ghost story''Spellbinding'
260 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
60 people are currently reading
211 people want to read
About the author
Paul Doherty
236 books609 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
He has been published under several pseudonyms: P.C. Doherty, Celia L. Grace, Paul Harding, Ann Dukthas, Vanessa Alexander, Michael Clynes and Anna Apostolou but now writes only under his own name.
Paul Doherty was born in Middlesbrough (North-Eastern England) in 1946. He had the usual education before studying at Durham for three years for the Catholic priesthood but decided not to proceed. He went to Liverpool University where he gained a First Class Honours Degree in History and won a state scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford, whilst there he met his wife Carla Lynn Corbitt. He continued his studies but decided that the academic world was not for him and became a secondary school teacher.
Paul worked in Ascot, Nottingham and Crawley West Sussex before being appointed as Headmaster to Trinity Catholic School in September 1981. Trinity is a large comprehensive [1700 on roll] which teaches the full ability range, ages 11-18. The school has been described as one of the leading comprehensives in the U.K. In April, 2000 H. M. Inspectorate describe it as an 'Outstanding School', and it was given Beacon status as a Centre of Excellence whilst, in the Chief Inspector’s Report to the Secretary of State for January 2001, Trinity Catholic High School was singled out for praise and received a public accolade.
Paul’s other incarnation is as a novelist. He finished his doctorate on the reign of Edward II of England and, in 1987, began to publish a series of outstanding historical mysteries set in the Middle Age, Classical, Greek, Ancient Egypt and elsewhere. These have been published in the United States by St. Martin’s Press of New York, Edhasa in Spain, and Eichborn, Heyne, Knaur and others in Germany. They have also been published in Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Romania, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Bulgaria, Portugal and China, as well as Argentina and Mexico.
He has been published under several pseudonyms (see the bibliography): C. L. Grace, Paul Harding, Ann Dukthas and Anna Apostolou but now writes only under his own name. He recently launched a very successful series based around the life of Alexander the Great, published by Constable & Robinson in the U.K., and Carroll and Graf in the U.S.A., whilst his novels set in Ancient Egypt have won critical acclaim. Paul has also written several non-fiction titles; A Life of Isabella the She-wolf of France, Wife of Edward II of England, as well as study of the possible murder of Tutankhamun, the boy Pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, and a study on the true fate of Alexander the Great.
Paul and Carla live on the borders of London and Essex, not far from Epping Forest and six of their children have been through his own school. His wife Carla currently owns two horses and is training, for showing and dressage, a beautiful Arab filly named Polly.
Paul lectures for a number of organisations, particularly on historical mysteries, many of which later feature in his writings. A born speaker and trained lecturer Paul Doherty can hold and entertain audiences.
His one great ambition is to petition the Privy Council of England to open the Purbeck marble tomb of Edward II in Gloucester Cathedral. Paul believes the tomb does not house the body
He has been published under several pseudonyms: P.C. Doherty, Celia L. Grace, Paul Harding, Ann Dukthas, Vanessa Alexander, Michael Clynes and Anna Apostolou but now writes only under his own name.
Paul Doherty was born in Middlesbrough (North-Eastern England) in 1946. He had the usual education before studying at Durham for three years for the Catholic priesthood but decided not to proceed. He went to Liverpool University where he gained a First Class Honours Degree in History and won a state scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford, whilst there he met his wife Carla Lynn Corbitt. He continued his studies but decided that the academic world was not for him and became a secondary school teacher.
Paul worked in Ascot, Nottingham and Crawley West Sussex before being appointed as Headmaster to Trinity Catholic School in September 1981. Trinity is a large comprehensive [1700 on roll] which teaches the full ability range, ages 11-18. The school has been described as one of the leading comprehensives in the U.K. In April, 2000 H. M. Inspectorate describe it as an 'Outstanding School', and it was given Beacon status as a Centre of Excellence whilst, in the Chief Inspector’s Report to the Secretary of State for January 2001, Trinity Catholic High School was singled out for praise and received a public accolade.
Paul’s other incarnation is as a novelist. He finished his doctorate on the reign of Edward II of England and, in 1987, began to publish a series of outstanding historical mysteries set in the Middle Age, Classical, Greek, Ancient Egypt and elsewhere. These have been published in the United States by St. Martin’s Press of New York, Edhasa in Spain, and Eichborn, Heyne, Knaur and others in Germany. They have also been published in Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Romania, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Bulgaria, Portugal and China, as well as Argentina and Mexico.
He has been published under several pseudonyms (see the bibliography): C. L. Grace, Paul Harding, Ann Dukthas and Anna Apostolou but now writes only under his own name. He recently launched a very successful series based around the life of Alexander the Great, published by Constable & Robinson in the U.K., and Carroll and Graf in the U.S.A., whilst his novels set in Ancient Egypt have won critical acclaim. Paul has also written several non-fiction titles; A Life of Isabella the She-wolf of France, Wife of Edward II of England, as well as study of the possible murder of Tutankhamun, the boy Pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, and a study on the true fate of Alexander the Great.
Paul and Carla live on the borders of London and Essex, not far from Epping Forest and six of their children have been through his own school. His wife Carla currently owns two horses and is training, for showing and dressage, a beautiful Arab filly named Polly.
Paul lectures for a number of organisations, particularly on historical mysteries, many of which later feature in his writings. A born speaker and trained lecturer Paul Doherty can hold and entertain audiences.
His one great ambition is to petition the Privy Council of England to open the Purbeck marble tomb of Edward II in Gloucester Cathedral. Paul believes the tomb does not house the body
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 22, 2017
Doherty continues to entertain and inform through this interestingly constructed series based on the The Canterbury Tales. Each book is delicately interwoven, but the story, individually, is just as easily accessible as a stand-alone read. By carefully constructing the characters, Doherty adds to his already developed skill of scene setting and of world building. The historical facts are well presented and the exaggerations or fabrications are seamlessly incorporated. This was another solid addition to the series and I cannot wait to continue reading of the pilgrim's tales. They are dark and delicious, drawing you in with every detail. Descriptive and adventurous, Ghostly Murders is a creative combination of the classic medieval ghost story with modern twists and turns that leave you wanting more.
October 26, 2021
Read this book in 2012, and its the 4th volume of the amazing "Canterbury Tales" series, featuring Geoffrey Chaucer as one of the pilgrims.
With rain falling heavily, the pilgrims on their way from London to Canterbury, have to take shelter in a decaying church, and its there that the priest will tell his tale of ancient evil and murder.
The story is about two brothers, Philip and Edmund, both appointed priests of the small Kentish village of Scawsby, and that place will soon turn out to be a place of horror.
When building a new church and relocate the graveyard, the brothers will discover that some coffins are empty and that several of the townsfolk have been buries alive.
One brother, Philip, starts to investigate these deaths, when all of a sudden more murders and disappearances will occur, and that will lead to final climax in which the brothers must somehow seem to survive against this evil and deadly peril.
Highly recommended, for this is another splendid addition to this amazing series, and that's why I like to call this episode: "A Terrific Ghostly Mystery"!
With rain falling heavily, the pilgrims on their way from London to Canterbury, have to take shelter in a decaying church, and its there that the priest will tell his tale of ancient evil and murder.
The story is about two brothers, Philip and Edmund, both appointed priests of the small Kentish village of Scawsby, and that place will soon turn out to be a place of horror.
When building a new church and relocate the graveyard, the brothers will discover that some coffins are empty and that several of the townsfolk have been buries alive.
One brother, Philip, starts to investigate these deaths, when all of a sudden more murders and disappearances will occur, and that will lead to final climax in which the brothers must somehow seem to survive against this evil and deadly peril.
Highly recommended, for this is another splendid addition to this amazing series, and that's why I like to call this episode: "A Terrific Ghostly Mystery"!
January 17, 2022
Damn good work from the master!!!😕
I know it's been awhile since I left a review. I just been reading. The last three stories are a work of art by a man who loves to tell a tail of old English mysteries. These books are more then a mystery. It's the supernatural, the devil, the worst of the worst that gets in to you soul , mind an heart. It really makes the shivers run up your spian.
I know it's been awhile since I left a review. I just been reading. The last three stories are a work of art by a man who loves to tell a tail of old English mysteries. These books are more then a mystery. It's the supernatural, the devil, the worst of the worst that gets in to you soul , mind an heart. It really makes the shivers run up your spian.
March 9, 2008
Based on the Canterbury Tales the author tells a medieval mystery story through a priest. I would actually term this a supernatural historical fiction. I want to read more P.C. Doherty.
July 25, 2011
Though it was a very quick read I really enjoyed reading it.Another example of Paul Doherty's enourmous knowledge of the history of medieval England.
July 7, 2012
Good ghost story and mystery. He needs to finish this series.
December 18, 2023
A fascinating book. It’s a modern retelling of the Priest’s Tale from The Canterbury Tales. Edmund and Philip are priests sent to the village of Scawsby in Kent. The church and grounds are reputed to be haunted, there is a curse on the people of the village, and legends abound about a group of Templar knights carrying sacred treasures who were murdered here decades earlier. Creepy, interesting, and definitely one to read with the light on.
August 2, 2025
Mr. Doherty writes extremely well and provides a new twist to the Canterbury Tales. He envisions the pilgrims telling additional stories to Chaucer enroute to Canterbury. The stories are of a sinister nature and the whole thing is done quite well. This book is part of a series. An Ancient Evil is another in the series and the first I’d read. I’m hoping to find more in the series as well as determining that I should reread the original Canterbury Tales.
May 1, 2022
Another great book from Paul Doherty
It's rather funny really when you consider how Paul Doherty weaves fact and fiction in his story telling and in these books the story tellers are doing exactly the same! A very clever way of doing the same thing differently. Whichever way he does it, he certainly knows how to tell a good story.
It's rather funny really when you consider how Paul Doherty weaves fact and fiction in his story telling and in these books the story tellers are doing exactly the same! A very clever way of doing the same thing differently. Whichever way he does it, he certainly knows how to tell a good story.
April 19, 2020
Great Book!
I enjoyed this book. My first Paul Doherty book; I read it in one sitting. The plot was interesting and the characters were realstic. The author did a great job with description of time period.
I enjoyed this book. My first Paul Doherty book; I read it in one sitting. The plot was interesting and the characters were realstic. The author did a great job with description of time period.
August 12, 2017
Honestly, I loved this story. It's much more of a ghost story than a mystery, but there are still some pretty good twists, and an interesting view of the Templars.
April 10, 2018
This is an excellent book. I’ve read the second and the fourth in the series so far and have really enjoyed them. This one in particular is a great mystery with many twists and turns.
February 17, 2019
A truly excellent book. I didn’t want to put it down even for meals. Definitely one of my top 100 favourite books.
June 8, 2021
An interesting and engaging story but the writing is very sloppy.
January 28, 2024
This book is so good! That’s all I can say, read it yourself. I can’t wait to read the others in this series.
March 16, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in October 1998.
I rather like the idea behind this series of Doherty's, very different from the Hugh Corbett mysteries or the Brother Athelstan books he writes as Paul Harding. The characters are the pilgrims of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and the idea is that in the evenings, resting from the day's journey, each pilgrim in turn told a murder story to match the tales told during the day and recorded by Chaucer. The stories so far (I believe this is the fourth) all have much the same format, third person narratives which turn out to be thinly disguised autobiographical accounts interspersed with comments from the other pilgrims. Each individual story is much longer than the ones in the Canterbury Tales, and they connect together several of the pilgrims (so that the final number of books in the series will be fewer than twenty-four, the number of Chaucer's tales).
Ghostly Murders is the tale of the poor priest, and it brings in the cook and the ploughman. It is extremely unusual among modern historical novels dealing with the Middle Ages in that it includes supernatural events which do not admit of rational explanation - visions of ghostly horsemen, physical attacks by spectres. Naturally, just about everyone in the fourteenth century would believe in such phenomena, but it is almost a convention of historical writing to allow a get-out for the modern sceptic.
The plot also involves a theme to which just about all writers of novels depicting the fourteenth century - and indeed many others - eventually turn: the downfall of the Templars in 1308. The overnight destruction of the richest and most powerful order of fighting monks (so rich and powerful as to amount to virtually a separate state within Europe) by Philip IV of France, and the acquiescence in its destruction by the Pope and other monarchs including Edward II of England is an irresistibly romantic mystery, with questions such as how justified were the accusations made against them? How complete was the destruction? Why did they just fold up and let it happen to the? (An interesting novel to read if you want to know more about the bizarre theories devised to answer these questions is Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum; Lawrence Durrel's Avignon Quintet looks at the issue from a rather different angle.)
Clearly (and this is one of the few clear aspects of the event), the destruction of the Templars was less swift and less complete in England than in France. The premise of Doherty's novel is that a group of Templars were fleeing from their London headquarters with treasure, when they were lured into the Kentish marshes and killed from a distance with longbows. Over the next generation, the priests of the nearest village have a tendency to feel they are fighting the forces of evil, and to see spirits of both the knights and those who attacked them; then to become obsessed with the treasure and die raving. The novel deals with two men, brothers and priests, sent by the Bishop of Rochester to the village.
Ghostly Murders is an interesting ghost story, not particularly a mystery. Doherty manages his usual authentic feel, the characters not falling into anachronistic Freudian psychoanalysis as is only too common in this sort of novel. It is not written with the genius of Chaucer, so the various storytellers are rather similar to one another - strangely enough, their recitations fall into the same literary style - but it is entertaining.
I rather like the idea behind this series of Doherty's, very different from the Hugh Corbett mysteries or the Brother Athelstan books he writes as Paul Harding. The characters are the pilgrims of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and the idea is that in the evenings, resting from the day's journey, each pilgrim in turn told a murder story to match the tales told during the day and recorded by Chaucer. The stories so far (I believe this is the fourth) all have much the same format, third person narratives which turn out to be thinly disguised autobiographical accounts interspersed with comments from the other pilgrims. Each individual story is much longer than the ones in the Canterbury Tales, and they connect together several of the pilgrims (so that the final number of books in the series will be fewer than twenty-four, the number of Chaucer's tales).
Ghostly Murders is the tale of the poor priest, and it brings in the cook and the ploughman. It is extremely unusual among modern historical novels dealing with the Middle Ages in that it includes supernatural events which do not admit of rational explanation - visions of ghostly horsemen, physical attacks by spectres. Naturally, just about everyone in the fourteenth century would believe in such phenomena, but it is almost a convention of historical writing to allow a get-out for the modern sceptic.
The plot also involves a theme to which just about all writers of novels depicting the fourteenth century - and indeed many others - eventually turn: the downfall of the Templars in 1308. The overnight destruction of the richest and most powerful order of fighting monks (so rich and powerful as to amount to virtually a separate state within Europe) by Philip IV of France, and the acquiescence in its destruction by the Pope and other monarchs including Edward II of England is an irresistibly romantic mystery, with questions such as how justified were the accusations made against them? How complete was the destruction? Why did they just fold up and let it happen to the? (An interesting novel to read if you want to know more about the bizarre theories devised to answer these questions is Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum; Lawrence Durrel's Avignon Quintet looks at the issue from a rather different angle.)
Clearly (and this is one of the few clear aspects of the event), the destruction of the Templars was less swift and less complete in England than in France. The premise of Doherty's novel is that a group of Templars were fleeing from their London headquarters with treasure, when they were lured into the Kentish marshes and killed from a distance with longbows. Over the next generation, the priests of the nearest village have a tendency to feel they are fighting the forces of evil, and to see spirits of both the knights and those who attacked them; then to become obsessed with the treasure and die raving. The novel deals with two men, brothers and priests, sent by the Bishop of Rochester to the village.
Ghostly Murders is an interesting ghost story, not particularly a mystery. Doherty manages his usual authentic feel, the characters not falling into anachronistic Freudian psychoanalysis as is only too common in this sort of novel. It is not written with the genius of Chaucer, so the various storytellers are rather similar to one another - strangely enough, their recitations fall into the same literary style - but it is entertaining.
August 25, 2009
This book was pretty disappointing, although I admit I probably went into it expecting too much. This was a selection from my Church’s summer book discussion group, so I assumed that someone had selected it from prior reading. In reality, someone found it via amazon.com, and thought it would be worth a read, even though she knew nothing of the author’s work.
This book is a silly mystery novel, and not a very good one at that. Two priests come to a town in medieval England, accompanied by a friend who is a master mason. (The author never lets us forget that- for the first few chapters, every time that character is mentioned, he mentions that he is a master mason). The town is cursed, and they try to lift the curse. In the end, the curse is pretty simple to lift, and the treasure is hidden exactly where any reader with a half a brain knew it was as of page 80.
The book is part of a series of books based on the idea that the pilgrims from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales tell mystery stories at night. This gimmick was completely unnecessary in this book. In fact, the pilgrim that tells this tale is not one of Chaucer’s pilgrims- the author makes him up- so there is absolutely no reason, independent of book sales, to place it in this series of books. The pilgrims that are actually drawn from Chaucer get painted with a very broad brush, and it seems that their actions are based on what the author read about them in the Cliff’s Notes summery of the prolog of Canterbury Tales (the Miller farts a lot- that’s the only distinguishing thing about him). If you are a fan of Chaucer and you are thinking that these might be fun based on your love of Chaucer, think again.
This book is a silly mystery novel, and not a very good one at that. Two priests come to a town in medieval England, accompanied by a friend who is a master mason. (The author never lets us forget that- for the first few chapters, every time that character is mentioned, he mentions that he is a master mason). The town is cursed, and they try to lift the curse. In the end, the curse is pretty simple to lift, and the treasure is hidden exactly where any reader with a half a brain knew it was as of page 80.
The book is part of a series of books based on the idea that the pilgrims from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales tell mystery stories at night. This gimmick was completely unnecessary in this book. In fact, the pilgrim that tells this tale is not one of Chaucer’s pilgrims- the author makes him up- so there is absolutely no reason, independent of book sales, to place it in this series of books. The pilgrims that are actually drawn from Chaucer get painted with a very broad brush, and it seems that their actions are based on what the author read about them in the Cliff’s Notes summery of the prolog of Canterbury Tales (the Miller farts a lot- that’s the only distinguishing thing about him). If you are a fan of Chaucer and you are thinking that these might be fun based on your love of Chaucer, think again.
June 9, 2010
I've read 2 or 3 other books in this "Canterbury Tales" series of medieval mysteries by Doherty. They all feature dark doings and a question of "is it or is it not supernatural?" In this installment, as the group of pilgrims sits in an abandoned village, emptied by the Black Death years earlier, the Poor Priest tells his tale - years before, when he came to the village of Scawsby, he felt that something was not right with the town. Did the secret lie within the town's legends - that, a generation ago, a fleeing group of Templars was ambushed by the villagers, and their precious treasure stolen? The village church seems cursed, and ghostly horsemen are seen on the borders of the marches that surround the town...
Not bad...
Not bad...
February 2, 2012
Read it for a change of pace and because I love Canterbury Tales. I enjoyed it once I got into it. There were a lot of characters to assimilate at first. Now I see it's a series, so that was probably part of the problem. Nothing like starting half way through.
June 1, 2014
Los historiadores leerán este tipo de novelas??
Deben ser muy sólidos sus conocimientos para no enredarse con estas historias de ficción.
Me entretuve.
Eso sí, tuve que anotar muchas palabras para buscar su significado.
Deben ser muy sólidos sus conocimientos para no enredarse con estas historias de ficción.
Me entretuve.
Eso sí, tuve que anotar muchas palabras para buscar su significado.
July 21, 2013
I think I might have liked it better if I'd have started in the beginning of the series instead of starting with this book. Other than that, the only thing I can really think to say is maybe don't read this alone on a stormy night...unless that's your thing. A quick, fun read. :-)
June 1, 2015
Another great book in the series......ooooo it's a toss up between 'A tournament of Murders' and this one. I kind of like this one a smidge better, but I really like the surprise last part of 'A Tournament..'. So the 2 books are very much tied as being the best in the series....imo.
February 28, 2011
This book took a really long time to get into, but once it got going it was great.
August 2, 2011
Another great medeavil mystery
August 27, 2012
A quick, easy read - just what I needed for a train journey. Enjoyable nonsense.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews