_The Demon Archer_
by P. C. Doherty
Hardly anyone liked Henry Fitzalan, Lord of Ashdown Forest. It was
said he feared neither man nor God, yet he'd paid to have the sanctuary
of his half-sister Madeleine's Priory of St. Hawisia refurbished and
the reliquary that had held the virgin saint's hair restored, which
seemed anything but in keeping with his skeptical tendencies. He'd
liked to feel he truly owned others, so perhaps his apparent generosity
with his sister had been intended to bind her more firmly to him by
ties of obligation. Certainly he'd found ways to coerce his brother
William to remain under his thumb in Ashdown Manor when the younger
Fitzalan would most likely prefer to be anywhere else in the realm of
England. His verderer Robert Verlian stayed in Fitzalan's service
mostly to protect as well as he might his daughter's virtue, for Henry
had made it plain he intended to sample her body as soon as he found
her vulnerable. He'd threatened to have the chapel guided by Father
Cosmas closed if he could find good reason, and the forest housed one
referred to as the Owlman who took pleasure in sending messages tied to
the shafts of his arrows warning the Fitzalans to "remember the Rose of
Rye."
Henry was hosting an embassy from France when he died, an arrow buried
in his heart. Phillip of France had made great efforts to have his
daughter Isabella engaged to King Edward the First's son, Edward,
Prince of Wales, a match considered desirable by everyone of any worth
throughout Europe save for King Edward himself, and it had been desired
by the French that Lord Henry Fitzalan should lead the return embassy
to Paris where the betrothal would be sealed and solemnized. Had one
of the French embassy slipped away from the hunting party so as to
shoot Henry from across the dell where they'd awaited what quarry the
huntsmen were sending their way? Had William shot his brother? How
about Cosmas or the mysterious Owlman, or could the verderer or his
daughter have been the assassin?
There were too many suspects and very little evidence, and so it fell
to Hugh Corbett, one of Edward's most trusted clerks, to sort out all
the clues so as to unmask the assassin. But could he do so before he
might come under an assassination plot aimed at him sponsored by
Seigneur Amaurry de Craon, head of Phillip's embassy?
I love mysteries set in Britain in long-ago times, and have read as
many such books as I can find, including the Ellis Peters Brother
Cadfael books, Candace Robb's Owen Archer mysteries set in York, and
Joan Wolfe's books. I understand that P.C. Doherty has a doctorate
earned in Oxford, and that he lives in Sussex. This is the eleventh
book he's written featuring Hugh Corbett, and he has another mystery
series set in the midst of the times and characters of Chaucer's "The
Canterbury Tales." I found this print volume at Goodwill in Sequim, a
book that once was housed in the Timberland Library System in Olympia,
Washington. I'm not certain if these books are available in accessible
media, but I shall be now looking for them elsewhere.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise
cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
