The Book of Shadows

Description

The Book of Shadows is the fourth novel in the acclaimed series featuring Kathryn Swinbrooke, medieval physician and chemist. It begins shortly after the murderous takeover of the throne by Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville in 1471, when blackmailers thrived by threatening detractors of the new king. The ugliest threat to the decent people of Canterbury is the magus Tenebrae, who controls the Book of Shadows - a grimoire of spells and magic containing secrets about the dead and the living. When Tenebrae is murdered, Kathryn Swinbrooke is summoned to solve the crime, or else risk the transfer of her love, Colum Murtagh, far away to London. However, the secrets stretch all the way to the King and Queen themselves, and everyone is a suspect - especially Tenebrae's last visitors, a nervous group of goldsmiths from London. Tenebrae is dead but the Book of Shadows still exerts his power, and its new owners will die for it. The suspects fall victim, one by one, to violent deaths, and Swinbrooke most solve the mystery before the Book of Shadows closes on them all.