Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight in Wyclif’s England, has been educated as a clerk, usually a prelude to taking holy orders. However, feeling no certain calling despite a lively faith, he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris and then hanging out his sign in Oxford. He was staring from his Oxford window, hoping for clients, when Lord Gilbert was kicked by his groom’s horse. Hugh’s successful treatment of the suffering lord led to an invitation to set up his practice in the village Bampton – and, before long, the request to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cesspit. She is identified as the impetuous missing daughter of a local blacksmith, and her young man, whom she had provoked very publicly, is in due course arrested and sentenced at the Oxford assizes. From there the tale unfolds, with graphic medical procedures, droll medieval wit, misdirection, ambition, romantic distractions and a consistent underlying Christian compassion.
Release date: September 1, 2008 (UK) | November 4, 2008 (US)
ISBN: 978-0-8254-6290-0
Available formats: Paperback | eBook | Kindle
Please read the book’s first chapter.
|