Dieser Autor befasst sich mit den komplexen Verbindungen zwischen Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, oft vor dem Hintergrund malerischer englischer Landschaften. Seine stilistische Präzision und Liebe zum Detail ziehen den Leser in eine Welt, in der Tradition auf Moderne trifft. Die Werke sind von einem tiefen Verständnis der menschlichen Psyche und Motivationen durchdrungen, was sie zu fesselnden Erzählungen macht. Das Schreiben spiegelt die Faszination des Autors für Folkmusik und das Leben einfacher Leute wider, die organisch in die Erzählung eingewoben sind.
Down on his luck Venetian entrepreneur Nick Zuliani accepts an offer by Friar Alberoni to act as his bodyguard on a journey to the Mongol overlord, Kubla Khan and finds himself investigating a murder in the fabled city of Xanadu.
From its first arrival in Britain with the Norman forces of William the Conqueror, violence and revenge are the cursed sword's constant companions. From an election-rigging scandal in 13th century Venice to the battlefield of Poitiers in 1356, as the Sword of Shame passes from owner to owner in this compelling collection of interlinked mysteries, it brings nothing but bad luck and disgrace to all who possess it.
It was July, 1100. Jerusalem lies ransacked. Amidst the chaos, an English knight is entrusted with a valuable religious relic: a fragment of the True Cross, allegedly stained with the blood of Christ. The relic is said to be cursed: anyone who touches it will meet an untimely and gruesome end. Several decades later, the Cross turns up in the possession of a dealer, robbed and murdered en route to Glastonbury. Investigating the death, Bernard Knight's protagonist, Crowner John learns of its dark history. In Oxford in 1269, the discovery of a decapitated monk leads Ian Morson's academic sleuth William Falconer to uncover a link to the relic. In 1323, in Exeter, Michael Jecks' Sir Baldwin has reason to suspect its involvement in at least five violent deaths. Thirty years later, several suspicious deaths occur in Cambridge - and, once again, the tainted relic has a crucial part to play. Finally, it's despatched to London, where Philip Gooden's Nick Revill will determine its ultimate fate.
It is 1268. Oxford is forced to play host to the Tartars, a tribe from the East whose deeds have wreaked havoc in France and Germany. This time they claim their mission is a peaceful one -- they merely wish to gain audience with the king. But are they to be trusted? When the Tartar ambassador is found dead, it looks like cold-blooded murder. Falconer is on the case once more, but even when he thinks he's solved the case, he still has to trick the murderer into giving himself away.