The Nicholas Feast (Gil Cunningham Murder Mysteries Series #2)

by Pat McIntosh

Overview

Glasgow 1492. Gil Cunningham remarked later that if he had known he would find a corpse in the university coal house, he would never have gone to the Arts Faculty feast.

In this mysterious adventure, Gil Cunningham returns to his old university for the Nicholas Feast, where he and his colleagues are entertained by a play presented by some of the students. One of the actors, William Irvine, is later found murdered and Gil assisted by Alys, begins to disentangle a complex web of espionage and blackmail involving William's tutors and fellow students. Matters are further complicated by the arrival of Gil's formidable mother who is determined to inspect his betrothed. Little do Alys and Gil realise that it will be she who provides the final, vital key to unmask the murderer and lay his motives clear.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845295004
Publisher:	Constable Fiction
Publication date:	08/30/2007
Series:	Gil Cunningham Murder Mysteries Series , #2
Edition description:	UK ed.
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Pat McIntosh, like Gil Cunningham, is a graduate of Glasgow University. Born and brought up in Lanarkshire, she lived and worked in Glasgow in before settling on Scotland's west coast, where she lives with her husband and three cats. She is the author of seven mysteries in the Gil Cunningham series.

Editorial Reviews

In Pat McIntosh's slow-moving The Nicholas Feast, her second historical after 2004's The Harper's Quine, former student Gil Cunningham returns to Glasgow University in May 1492 for the annual rites celebrating the yuletide saint. The pace begins to quicken when actor William Irvine is found strangled in a coalhouse two hours after the feast, but readers may wish at times they had a glossary ("Even William never had a leman at the yett," a porter mutters). Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Donning his academic robes and riding off to attend the Nicholas Feast at Glasgow University, Gil Cunningham little suspects his journey will end in murder. Gil's greeted at the gate by rude, arrogant young William Irvine, a bastard of the powerful Montgomery clan. After the feast and play, William is found strangled in the coalhouse. Because of Gil's former involvement in crime (The Harper's Quine, 2004), the college asks him to discover the truth. William's wrothful relative Lord Montgomery gives him two days before he brings out the thumbscrews. It doesn't take even that long to discover that William collected scraps of gossip and was not above blackmailing people. Hated and feared by almost everyone, he leaves no dearth of suspects. Someone presumably desperate for information has searched his room and cracked the head of his wolfhound puppy. Recently betrothed to French mason Maistre Pierre's lovely and intelligent daughter Alys, Gil turns to her for help in deciphering the coded shorthand information William kept in a red book. Diligent questioning has produced alibis for most of the field when the wolfhound puppy Gil's taken in leads him to a clue that solves the mystery of William's birth-a significant piece of the puzzle behind the crimes. A satisfying story, studded with tidbits of medieval custom, hearty as a raisin scone.

Kirkus Reviews