The Unquiet Bones

by Mel Starr

Overview

Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight, 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. A local lord asks him to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cess pit. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782640301
Publisher:	Lion Hudson
Publication date:	04/19/2013
Series:	The Chronicles of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon , #1
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	322,322
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x 2.10(d)

About the Author

Mel Starr is the author of the successful Chronicles of Hugh de Singleton series. He was born and grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. After graduating with a MA in history from Western Michigan University in 1970, hetaught history in Michigan public schools for thirty-nine years. Since retiring, he has focused on writing full time. Mel and his wife, Susan, have two daughters and eight grandchildren.

Editorial Reviews

A medieval whodunnit set in Bampton, Oxfordshire during the plague years and featuring a newly qualified surgeon.

Uctred through he had discovered pig bones. He did not know or care why they were in the cesspit at the base of Bampton Castle wall. Then he found the skull. Uctred is a tenant, bound to the land of Lord Gilbert, third Baron Talbot, lord of Bampton Castle, and had slaughtered many pigs. He knew the difference between human and pig skulls. Lord Gilbert called for me to inspect the bones. All knew whose bones they must be. They were not. Hugh de Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight in Wyclif's England had had some good fortune. Newly trained as a surgeon, 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 of Bampton - and, before long, the request to identify some bones.

From the Publisher

This skilfully woven story is a delight to read. The setting is exceptionally well crafted. Highly recommended.

Davis Bunn