A Plague of Heretics

Crowner John Mystery #14

by Bernard Knight

The 14th gripping murder mystery to feature 12th century coroner, Crowner JohnWith the city of Exeter ravaged by an outbreak of the "yellow plague," Sir John de Wolfe, the county coroner, must divide his time between visiting his sick brother, William, who has been struck down by the disease, and dealing with a series of brutal murders that appears to be linked to a revival of heresy in the city. When some of the cathedral canons begin a crusade against this danger to the Church, Sir John finds himself accused of being too sympathetic to the heretics, bringing him into conflict with the ecclesiastic authorities. As the situation worsens, the coroner must seek sanctuary in order to save his skin. Can he survive long enough to unmask the real killer?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Medieval, Fiction, Crime, Historical Mystery, Historical

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Aka Bernard Picton.

Professor Bernard Knight, CBE, (born 1931) became a Home Office pathologist in 1965 and was appointed Professor of Forensic Pathology, University of Wales College of Medicine, in 1980. He has been writing since before 1963, when his first crime novel was published. Since then, he has written about thirty books, including contemporary crime fiction, historical novels about Wales, biography, non-fiction popular works on forensic medicine, twelve medico-legal textbooks and the Crowner John Mysteries series of 12th-century historical mysteries.

In addition, he has written scripts for radio and television dramas and documentaries, including the forensic series The Expert starring Marius Goring, in the 1970s. He has contributed to many other textbooks and has edited several medical journals - he was Managing Editor of Elsevier's Forensic Science International, the leading international publication in the field.

Currently, he is a founder member of The Medieval Murderers, a select group of historical crime-writers within the Crime Writers' Association, who give presentations at literary festivals, libraries and bookshops, to promote their work amongst the public. He is also one of the non-fiction judges for the annual 'Dagger' Awards of the Crime Writers' Association and a regular reviewer of crime books for the Internet site Tangled Web.

He was born and lives in Cardiff and as well as being a doctor, he qualified as a barrister and was awarded the CBE in 1993 for services to forensic medicine. In the 1950s, he served as a Regular Army medical officer in Malaya during the terrorist campaign, in a military hospital which he compares with 'MASH'.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Lenine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great finale of a wonder series!

[Dillydally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read books 12 & 13 in this series, but I will still do so.

*******CAUTION, POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD. BEWARE******

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.


An upsurge in the persecution of heretics by the general populace of Exeter, which is fuelled by assorted church fanatics and Crowner John's new neighbour, forms the basis of the plot for this novel, alongside a plague to which some of Crowner John's nearest and dearest fall victim.

This is a series I am very fond of generally, but I'm afraid in this book, I found the plot to be slow and lacking real clues, and Crowner John to be angsty and sentimental. Aside from a few incidents, most of the action took place in the final fifth of the book, and, due to an unusually high amount of foreshadowing for this author, very little of it was unexpected.

While there has been much to appreciate in this series by a very competent writer, I found this apparently final installment, disappointing. Knight has clearly become bored with the series, and he seems to have written this book simply as a means to tie up the loose ends and give the protagonist (and the readers) what he felt to be a happy ending, all tied up with a pretty bow.

Unfortunately, I found that however logically the author presented them, the final events just didn't ring true for me. Knight has been very careful to keep the characters, plots, and settings, real in this series, and to finish it with what I can only describe as a fairytale ending for Crowner John and several other characters (with a couple of notable exceptions), jarred.

The book isn't a total washout, however. The setting remained gritty, real, and devoid of the romanticism which some authors employ to make things more "acceptable" to modern sensibilities.

I will be checking out Knight's new Dr. Richard Pryor series, about a pathologist in the sixties. As a noted (and decorated)pathologist himself with multiple qualifications, this series is right up his alley, though I do hope he avoids making it "educational", given that he is the author of several textbooks on the subject.

[Richard Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good easy to read book, a reasonably captivating story that plays all the hits of a historical fiction book. I imagine its a great holiday read to just cruise through on a beach, if you are that way inclined.

There are questionable domestic abuse plot points involving the protagonist. I’m not really sure why the author went down that road, it feels dated, especially considering the book was published in 2010.

I am interested to read other books in this series, so I would recommend it. But, I’d say the novelty was doing a fair bit of the heavy lifting so if you’re not a fan of the Middle Ages best give it a miss.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fitting Climax to this Medieval Historical Coroner Series complete with happy ending & all loose ends tied up. A lot of the characters actually existed he's given them all a new lease of life.
Excellent series.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

He knows his history but he's not much on plot. Or characters. It's a good way to learn something about medieval life, religion, politics and religious politics but a page turner it's not.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been giving a steady star rating throughout the Crowner John series, because the stories ARE steady!

They have all been rather slow in pace, which is actually fine with me, as life in 12th century England was, for the vast majority of it's people, a steady pace from when they woke, at the crack of dawn, to when they slept, at dusk, as this was their main light source, unlike our modern times.

This final story - so far - of the Crowner series, was a fantastic glimpse of a time when plague almost always got the upper hand, and the story starts with an outbreak of yellow plague.

Then, mixed in with this, is the introduction of heresy, which gets so many people in the town of Exeter hot under the collar - to the point that some known heretics are murdered - and it's up to Crowner John and his team to get to the bottom of it, before more people are murdered.

While John tries his best to stop the whole town from going up in flames over this issue, he is given the news that his brother had caught the plague so, asking his neighbour, a doctor, to go with him, he rides as quickly as he can to his childhood home.

When they get there, they find that there is nothing to be done, and John's brother is holding on to life by a thread - which gets John on his knees, and genuinely praying to God, for the first time in years.

When a Fuller, his wife, and two children are brutally murdered, by having their home set on fire, using Naphtha as the incendiary, John knows that things have got to be brought under control in the town, though the murder of innocent children is the thing that gets the people so angry, that they realise they've been acting badly over this issue.

Crowner John now spends all of his time riding back and forth between Exeter, and his brother, while trying to solve the murders of the heretics. And then his clerk, Thomas, comes down with the plague, too, and so John is frantically worried about his brother, and now Thomas, while also trying to keep the people of Exeter from growing wild again - and his list of suspects just keep on growing.

But it's when he gets back to his home, after an evening at the Bush tavern, and finds his wife, Mildred, on the floor, strangled to death, that things become even crazier, as his brother-in-law, Richard de Revelle, comes into John's home, just as he had discovered the body, and he immediately accuses John of murdering his sister!

While John stands over his wife's body, unable to work out why she had been killed, Richard raises a hue and cry, as the law says must be done and, when the sheriff and some of his men turn up, Richard accuses John of murder, and so the sheriff has to arrest him.

As nobody who knows John believes that he is the murderer, except Richard, they start frantically trying to find out who did do it but, the next day, Richard turns up with the coroner from Dorset - a member of his family, by marriage, and John is officially accused of Mildred's murder, and found guilty, by the coroner and Richard.

While being escorted to the church where his wife was being buried, one of his friends, Brother Rufus, whispers something to him and, just as everyone goes to leave, John calls out and claims sanctuary.

As this gives him fourty days in which to prove his innocence, he thinks it a good idea and, though worried about his brother, and relieved about a rapidly healing Thomas, John is worried that he won't find the killer in time.

Then John's mother, and Hilda, his childhood sweetheart, and sometimes mistress, appear, and start to do what they can for John and, while this happens, Mary, John's house maid, hears a strange noise coming from the yard next door, and discovers the doctor's wife, who had been strangled, but was still alive - and so the murderer is discovered, and John is released in time to find him, and bring him to justice!

The book ends with John and Hilda marrying, which makes me think that there will be no more Crowner John books following on from this - but I hope not, as they have become firm favourites with me!

Just as I finished this, another book dropped through my letterbox - not a follow-on, but a prequel to the series, written about Crowner John's crusading years: Crowner's Crusade!

[Nathan Albright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book reminded me of why I liked the Brother Cadfael novels so much more. This particular series appears based in large part on the success of the Brother Cadfael novels--this series is set in Plantagenet times with a crusading hero who seeks to solve murder mysteries in a west country city. But it is what is different between this series and the Brother Cadfael series where the superiority of the latter shines through. Cadfael is a loyal and deeply religious person, while Crowner John is a bully, an inveterate skirtchaser, and someone who lacks a great deal of sympathy and understanding with organized religion. This is a fatal flaw when it comes to writing about the Middle Ages, for one, and about the Roman Catholic Church or any church at all. An author who, like the author, is hostile to the claims of authority that a church has and sympathetic with heretics and rebels, is someone who cannot fairly approach religious issues, and that makes this book far less enjoyable than it would be in the hands of a writer with a less strident and problematic worldview. This book is a case where discovering the villians is as easy as picking out the author's anticlerical bias, and that is a serious flaw.

A Plague Of Heretics, a standard sized medieval mystery novel of almost 400 pages, finds the hero returned to Exeter after a time in London (review forthcoming) finds Crowner John serving as the coroner for Exeter during a time of an outbreak of yellow plague that corresponds with the outbreak of violence being committed against a few heretics in the town. Crowner John takes up the side of the heretics and draws the hostility of the local religious establishment as well as the larger body of citizenry, who blames the plague on the foreign ideas and foreign trade that connect Exeter to southern France. The proliferation of dead heretics, and the large number of potential suspects, leads to a situation where Crowner John has to try to prove his innocence as well as trying to avoid infecting his "whore from Dawlish" (aka wifey number two) with the plague while also encouraging the health of his older brother. Unfortunately, the author's all too obvious hostility to the Roman Catholic Church stacks the deck in favor of heretics who would do well to lay low and not draw so much attention to themselves, as they appear to be of the mistaken opinion that heresy has no social and political consequences, which alas is not the case.

One of the essential elements of a good mystery series is having a likeable hero, and unfortunately, this novel does not deliver on that. The author shows himself to be casually misogynistic to most of the women in the book, who serve merely as shrewish wives, potential adultery partners, or servants vulnerable to sexual exploitation and invariably timid or mousy. The deaths in this novel are all too convenient, ridding the author, at least potentially, of one of the main elements that makes the author so unlikeable as a force of law and order, and that is his complete inability to control himself, whether with regards to his considerable temper or his sexuality. One wonders whether the author is a secret feminist out of his terrible portrayal of his out of control hero, who tries to justify his threats against his wife and finds himself, appropriately, trying to prove his innocence in strangling her when he had made threats to end her life in their endless rows. When the reader is led to actively root against the hero because he is such a boar, one can tell that a novelist has failed to craft a sympathetic protagonist.

[Christopher Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok book. Can't say it was all that special. In some ways I was glad to get to the end of both the book and the series. . There is a lot of repetition in all these books. We are constantly reminded about things that have happened in other books and also more than once in this book. Still it means you can skip bits in the book because of that.
Sir John De Wolf seems an over sexed randy old git. And are we ever reminded of it. Anytime a female character is introduced we are told how much JDW wants to find out just what she's like in the sack. He's also a bad tempered bloke you wouldn't want to meet on a dark night.
Most things seem to centre on all the food and drink they eat. I know water was not drunk because Beer and cider was considered safer, but if any of us drank so much we would be drunk most of the time. It gets tiring.
The plot was OK. could have padded it out more. and made it more interesting .The conclusion is wrapped up much to quickly (within 50 pages) that doesn't really add much to the story. One of the main characters gets murdered at the end but by then we already have some idea who did it. And conveniently the perpetrator kills himself. Sir John gets to marry his Dawlish wench. and everything its tied up in a nice little bow at the end. almost like the author was bored of writing the books too and just wanted to finish them.

[Rupert Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book - right up to the final 15 pages when it all fell apart.

If you know the Crowner John series you will know what to expect - medieval whodunnit centred around John de Wolfe, the coroner of Devon in the 1190s. Strong characters, realistic medieval setting, intriguing mystery, plot twists, running themes, stand alone plot and so forth. I've read several of these and enjoyed them all.

So what went wrong this time? Well this time the "detective" in the "whodunnit" discovers the murderer entirely by chance. This is very annoying at the best of times, but here there were plenty of clues to lead the detective to the culprit. Even I had worked it out by 3/4 of the way through the book [and I can be really dense at whodunnits]. All the detective had to do was join the fairly obvious dots. But he didn't. It was down to pure chance. A weak plot device, I thought and it quite spoiled the book for me.

Sigh.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this ending. i have been perhaps harsh in the star rating throughout this series, but I have very fond memories of the series. Crowner John's relationship with his wife is amazing throughout (I would have killed her in book 1 - not a spoiler as you will find out). This book ties up lose ends nicely. His description of England at the time is phenomenal and far better than most authors of historical fiction. The only downside is the pace, which is plodding. Having said that, a slow pace really suits the times. People didn't race around motorways and life was dawn to dusk - often without a lot happening other than performing life's daily chores and work, of course.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final novel in the series and, although far too neatly and quickly wrapped up, it was still a pretty good read.

The threat of a deadly epidemic disease dubbed the yellow plague, which affects some of those close to him, is the backdrop to Sir John de Wolfe’s investigation into the murders of some accused by the cathedral of heresy. The background of religious division in 1196 is interesting, as is the day-to-day life and the relationship between de Wolfe and Matilda, his wife.

The villain was pretty obvious and the resolution was too pat but it kept the interest to see how the foreshadowed predicaments would pan out.

[Ragne]

Quite good, though rather obvious.

What really bugs me, is that the main character says repeatedly that he doesn't want a witch hunt. The story takes place about 300 years before the which hunts began... Things like that throws me enough to loose the thread of the story.

But, good enough for an audio book while doing other stuff. The fact that I haven't read any of the other books in the series, isn't an issue.

[deni Tomgirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely love this series, unfortunately there aren't too many titles still available in the library. (This one written in 2010)
The characters are all three dimensional and have a well documented history behind them, the plots are always good ones, although I did guess the culprit this time! The atmosphere of medieval Exeter is excellently portrayed and all in all a good read.

[Dan DeValk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best one of the series

Just completed the whole series. Knight did an exceptional job maintaining the quality of his story and the interest of we followers. Without ruining the final ending, I really enjoyed the way all the loose ends are tied off. I truly enjoyed every book of this series.

[Wietse Van den bos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vier sterretjes. Gewoon een vermakelijke historische detective. Het detective gedeelte was redelijk, de beschrijving van 12e eeuwse Engeland was erg leuk. Een plaag en vermoorde ketters. Vermakelijk boek, volgens mij wel gewoon goed geresearched naar de periode. Beetje jammer dat het wel een enigszins sexistisch boek is.

[Own Timis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crowner John's last outing is as good as all the others. A gripping read and I couldn't get through the last 100 pages any quicker as I was so keen to know what happened!

I'm sad that the Crowner John series has come to an end as they were excellent reads, though I've yet to read the prequel which should be interesting.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting but slow building medieval England based thriller in the surroundings of Devon. Nice to read about places I recognised. The descriptiveness was wonderfully historical , I could close my eyes and my imagination would take me back there.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
But silly of me to start with book no 14 in the series... 🙄
I’m sure it would have been more enjoyable if I’d read the earlier ones first. But pretty good, I may look out for more of these.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good finish to a great series.

[Catherine Kestle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sir Bernard Knight always leaves me wanting more from Crowner John.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing isn't the tightest but an obnoxious character goes away and everyone lives happily ever after.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first medieval mystery I have read by Bernard Knight. I have to admit to being very squeamish about the persecution of the so-called heretics, by the Catholic Church at the time of the story, 1195. Hard to believe, since my mystery fare usually involves serial killers. But the picture of the church elders offering money to anyone seeking out those neighbors who believed that intersession by a priest was not needed, for them to be able to communicate with God, with the idea of trying those neighbors and burning them alive or hanging them was insidiously evil, to my way of thinking.

Knight has written more than a dozen mysteries that have the illiterate coroner "Crowner" John de Wolfe as the central character. This is one of the very latest. I need to go back to the beginning. The plot was a bit thin, in that it was summarily tidied up at the end. But he does paint a clear picture of the small town of Exeter during that period.

[John Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is currently the latest book in the series and again a thoroughly enjoyable read.
The detail of the food eaten at each meal could easily have been over the top but it isnt. It adds to the fascinating picture that builds up of life in the city at the time. Brilliant research.
We live close to Exeter and suspect that some of the older churches in the city are on the site of those in the story. Although this is a work of fiction, I can well imagine that on our next trip to the city, we could go looking for the site of John's house and The Bush.
A Plague of Heretics has a good story which becomes a real page turner. I was about 3/4 through the book last night and ready to put it down , when "it" happened. After that there was no way that I wasnt going to finish it before I turned in.
If I could have given 4.5, I would have done. Tempted to go for the 5.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was perhaps the final book in the Sir John the Crowner series? It's the final book I intend to read as I gave the author/series a fair chance to beguile me by reading three of the books. This one gets 3 stars from me (more than the other two) because the topic of "heresy" during this time period interests me. The writing was better in this book but was still not consistent, start to finish. I am shocked that I did not abandon the book after reading this on page 12: "The Cornishman scratched his crotch ruminatively." Yes, please do laugh. It does give one pause. The author frequently selects awkward phrasings and verbs. His characters "shuffle" and they "waddle" in and out of scenes. Furthermore, it is difficult to like the main character as his clerk Thomas is smarter but not given his proper due. I remain committed to finding and reading quality historical fiction.

[Spuddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourteenth and final (I believe--except for a prequel to the series that was published after this one) Crowner John mystery, set in medieval Devon. A plague of the mysterious yellow fever has swept through coastal Devon, killing many who are afflicted.

As tensions run high as people worry over the physical plague, the Church begins to put its foot down to stamp out what it sees as a spiritual plague of heresy. Three separate murders of known heretics has the coroner on high alert as he wonders if the over-zealous canons are stepping outside the law to see them stopped.

All of this John must investigate as his own brother lies near death from the yellow plague with his own future up in the air.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say ... I love this series. The author doesn't romanticize this time period, it's smelly, violent and unless you are wealthy, living conditions are just plain nasty. Your knight in shining armor usually comes with fleas, head lice and probably hasn't fully bathed in a couple of years. Against this realistic background, Bernard Knight has developed not only great characters, but good storylines. Some books were better then others, but I found each was written well enough to pull me in and keep me reading long past time for bed.

It appears that this is the last book in the series and I'm sad to see it end.

[Blair Hodgkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last of the Crowner John mysteries comes to a bit of a rushed end after a slow start. If Knight were less repetitive, these books would be shorter, but the mysteries are generally satisfying and reasonably plausible. As a forensic expert, he brings a special value to the medieval coroner's investigations.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining story of murder and plague in 12th century Exeter. I loved the setting and was impressed by the history, but the writing was pedestrian at best. The protagonist has a problem keeping his temper - and when he was described as "usually phlegmatic" I couldn't help laughing. I guessed the murderer about one-third of the way through.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably my least favorite of this series, but many important things happen to the characters since Mr. Knight assumed this would be his last book in the series. There will be one more published, so it will be interesting to see if that one is better.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books