Spiteful Bones

by Jeri Westerson

Overview

The restoration of a crumbling manor house leaves Crispin Guest grappling with a troubling discovery in this entertaining medieval noir mystery. Restoring his recently inherited family home is a daunting enough task for young lawyer Nigellus Cobmartin without the addition of any unwelcome discoveries. But when workmen turning the crumbling manor house into a grand home for Nigellus and his companion, John Rykener, uncover a skeleton bound, tied and hidden in the wall - and holding the precious relic that went missing from his father's estate nearly twenty years ago - Nigellus immediately calls on London tracker Crispin Guest for help. Whose bones are they, and why was the valuable relic buried with the thief? Crispin and Jack are drawn into a mystery of dark secrets, family scandal and old grudges as they attempt to find the truth behind a load of old bones.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448304592
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	01/01/2021
Series:	A Crispin Guest Mystery , #14
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	568,397
File size:	895 KB

About the Author

Jeri Westerson was born and raised in Los Angeles. As well as thirteen previous Crispin Guest medieval mysteries, she is the author of a paranormal urban fantasy series and several historical novels. Her books have been nominated for the Shamus, the Macavity and the Agatha awards.
Jeri Westerson was born and raised in Los Angeles. As well as nine previous Crispin Guest medieval mysteries, she is the author of a paranormal urban fantasy series and several historical novels. Her books have been nominated for the Shamus, the Macavity and the Agatha awards.

Editorial Reviews

11/30/2020

In Westerson’s middling 14th medieval noir (after 2019’s Sword of Shadows), set in 1398 London, disgraced knight Crispin Guest, now an investigator known as the Tracker, is summoned to the home of his friend Nigellus Cobmartin after a man’s skeleton is found plastered into a wall. The man’s bound hands hold a gem-studded gold reliquary, which was stolen from the household 20 years earlier. The remains are believed to be those of Wilfrid Roke, a servant whose disappearance coincided with the theft. Guest concludes that the killer is alive and in the Cobmartin home after he finds that crucial household records from 1378 have just been burnt. Anachronistic language (“Welcome to my world”) and clunky phrasing (“Something about it stirred the cauldron of his thoughts, but try as he might, it would not rise to the surface”) don’t help an unmemorable plot. Neither the solution nor the recreation of the period stands out. Readers will hope for a return to form. Agent: Joshua Bilmes/JABberwocky Agency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Well plotted and comes with a deeply satisfying resolution. Another winner

Booklist on The Deepest Grave

This latest in the always enjoyable, crisply written series delivers an agreeable mix of adventure and atmosphere

Booklist on Sword of Shadows

“Westerson’s acclaimed series mixes historical detail with a deep dive into the character of a flawed but honorable hero” – Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Grim, gritty, and utterly enthralling, Westerson's gripping narrative pulls the reader deep into the dark underbelly of the Middle Ages

Booklist on Traitor's Codex

This latest in the always enjoyable, crisply written series delivers an agreeable mix of adventure and atmosphere

null Booklist on Sword of Shadows

09/01/2020

In Armstrong's A Stranger in Town, Det. Casey Duncan learns that off-the-grid Rockton may be cashiered (50,000-copy first printing). Award-winning YA fiction author Cosimano's first adult novel, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, features a struggling suspense writer mistaken as a serial killer (100,000-copy first printing). In Finch's An Extravagant Death, Victorian-era sleuth Sir Charles Lennox takes his first trip to America (100,000-copy first printing). In Harper's The Survivors, Kieran Elliot returns to his coastal hometown and relives a childhood tragedy (125,000-copy first printing). Harrod-Eagles's Cruel as the Grave has Bill Slider doubting that a fitness trainer was killed by his girlfriend. Ide's Smoke marks the return of Isaiah Quintabe, the Sherlock Holmes of South Central Los Angeles. Mosley's Blood Grove puts popular protagonist Easy Rawlins front and center again (40,000-copy first printing). In Robb's Faithless in Death, Lt. Eve Dallas wonders if an angry lover really did kill sculptor Ariel Byrd (750,000-copy first printing). Todd's A Fatal Lie, Inspector Ian Rutledge seeks the identity of a stranger who tumbled from a Welsh aqueduct. Westerson's Spiteful Bones has Crispin Guest, London's famed Tracker, untangle the mystery around a bound skeleton found in a manor wall.

Library Journal

2020-11-18
In 1398, Crispin Guest, Tracker of London, is feeling his age.

When a skeleton clutching a precious reliquary is found in a wall in the house of lawyer Nigellus Cobmartin, who’s eager to avoid official investigation because he lives with his male lover, John Rykener, he calls upon his friend Crispin to solve a long-concealed crime. Crispin, his assistant, Jack Tucker, and Jack's family live together, and they’re often visited by teenage Christopher Walcote, ostensibly the scion of a wealthy mercer but actually Crispin’s son, who wants to emulate his biological father. Because a servant was originally suspected of making off with the relic, Crispin begins by interviewing the longtime servants. He soon learns that clerk William Roke is the son of Wilfrid, the accused thief. Though he was very young at the time of the theft, William remembers his parents fighting over a suspected affair with a workman before his mother broke her neck in a fall down the stairs. The burning of the old household records indicates that the killer may still be around. Digging in the past almost leads to the death of Crispin, who’s preoccupied with his hopes and fears for his son. After William Roke is murdered, Crispin finds the key that unlocks the truth only to be confronted with a new danger relating to his past.

Westerson’s acclaimed series mixes historical detail with a deep dive into the character of a flawed but honorable hero.

Kirkus Reviews