How a humble Devon knight became a king’s coroner: the thrilling prequel to the perennially popular Crowner John medieval mystery series

1192. At the end of the Third Crusade, Richard the Lionheart, King of England, set sail for home from the Holy Land. Sir John de Wolfe, a Devon knight, was part of the king’s small bodyguard on that dangerously treacherous journey.

On his return, Sir John finds England simmering with rebellion. Richard’s younger brother John has used the king’s absence to plot to seize the throne and the country is a hotbed of unrest. Discovering a body washed up on the shores of the River Exe, its throat cut, Sir John deduces from the device etched on the victim’s signet ring that he was a king’s courier. Tasked by Hubert Walter, the Chief Justiciar, to find out why the man died and who killed him, Sir John de Wolfe finds himself drawn unwillingly into affairs of state. His new career as a king’s coroner is about to begin …