The Deadliest Sin

October 4, 2021
It’s 1399 in Westerson’s solid 15th and final medieval noir featuring disgraced English nobleman Crispin Guest (after 2020’s Spiteful Bones), and Henry Bolingbroke, the exiled duke of Lancaster, poses a threat to the reign of Richard II. While Crispin, known as the Tracker for his reputation as a superior detective, waits to see what the conflict means for his future, Prioress Drueta, of London’s St. Frideswide Priory, summons him after two of the nuns under her care are killed in bizarre ways. One had food stuffed down her throat, and the second was smothered by a pillow wrapped in all the blankets of her sister nuns. Crispin agrees to investigate and begins to question the priory’s residents. When a third nun is found murdered with coins in her mouth, Crispin realizes that each murder illustrates one of the seven deadly sins. With access to part of the priory deemed off-limits because he’s a man and an outsider, he recruits an old friend to go undercover as a nun. The intriguing politics behind the murders compensate for a solution that isn’t one of the author’s best. Westerson wraps up the series’ major loose ends in a manner sure to satisfy fans. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary.

October 15, 2021
The wheel of life comes full circle for Crispin Guest in the last of his great adventures. Guest lost his fortune and knighthood to an accusation of treason when he chose to stand with the Duke of Lancaster after having sworn fealty to 10-year-old King Richard. He escaped with his life but was forced to reinvent himself as the Tracker of London, a medieval private eye with a specialty in holy relics. Now that Lancaster is dead and his exiled son, Henry Bolingbroke, has returned to England, Guest's thoughts constantly turn to him, but first he has several murders to solve. St. Frideswide is a priory whose modest numbers have been recently reduced by one natural death and two murders. The prioress, refusing to involve the civil authorities, hires Guest, who's just realized that the murders have been staged to mimic some of the seven deadly sins when another victim dies almost before his eyes. The very short list of suspects includes the one-armed caretaker and the priest Father Holbrok. Limited in what he and Jack Tucker, his devoted longtime apprentice, can accomplish, Guest sends for Philippa Walcote, the woman he loves, who's married to another man, and her son, whose looks identify him as Guest's. Beneath the priory's calm surface they discover a seething mass of jealousy and deceit that will eventually lead to a killer. But it's the arrival of Henry that changes Guest's life forever. Readers who have followed Guest through 14 mysteries will be sad to see him go but pleased with his ultimate fate.

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Starred review from December 1, 2021

The 15th Crispin Guest mystery (after Spiteful Bones) wraps up the historical series. Crispin, a knight stripped of his honor and his lands, has learned to live by his wits in 14th-century London. Now he and his apprentice Jack Tucker are called to a priory to investigate the murder of two nuns. One nun was left by the pigsty, food stuffed down her throat. The other was found smothered to death. When screams send everyone running to the church, Crispin learns the intent of the killer. A third nun lays dead, arranged with money coming from her mouth, reflecting a painting of the seven deadly sins. While Crispin and Jack face gravedigging and confrontational nuns, Crispin also faces his own past. As a Lancaster supporter, he lost everything as a traitor to Richard II. Now, the Duke of Lancaster's son, Henry, is marching through England, facing little opposition. How will Guest be treated if a new Lancaster takes the throne? VERDICT An appropriate end to Westerson's series. Long-time fans will be eager to see if Crispin can triumph over the past, and anyone who enjoys medieval mysteries can follow it easily.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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