Murder in the Holy City

A hot day in July 1100 in Jerusalem; Sir Geoffrey Mappestone and his group of soldiers have come upon some people confronting a young woman who has a bloody knife in her hand.  She tells him that there is a dead soldier in her house.  When he sees the dead man, Geoffrey realises that he knows him.  Is the woman the killer? He takes the body and the woman to the Advocate.  Is the killing connected to one that had occurred earlier?

That same evening, a priest is killed by an unknown person, but they used the same kind of knife as had killed the victim that the woman had found in her home.  Geoffrey is called to the Patriarch’s palace by the Advocate.  There Geoffrey meets his liege lord, Tancred, who asks him to continue learning Arabic and to look into the murder of three priests and two knights; all killed in the same manner.  When Geoffrey gets back to his little room in the citadel he is shocked to find a heart pinned to the wall by a jewelled dagger!

The following morning Geoffrey is approached by a monk named Courrances, to investigate the murders on behalf of the Advocate.  Geoffrey agrees because it gives him a bit of an advantage.  His friend, Roger, offers to help, while his other friend, Hugh, is wary.  And so, Geoffrey begins his investigation.  

The investigation takes a turn when another monk is killed.  This time he was strangled.  Is someone trying to scare the Crusaders out of Jerusalem?  In this case, the monk was the scribe for the Patriarch.  This man now asks Geoffrey to investigate the murders on his behalf.  Geoffrey is now working for three of the most important men in Jerusalem, who just may be at odds with one another.  Roger, who had accompanied him, is now in the pay of his lord, Bohemond and the Patriarch.  This puts another powerful man into the mix.

Who can Geoffrey trust?  Is his friend, Roger, trustworthy?  Knights from different jurisdictions are definitely not.  How can he solve the cases if he can’t trust anyone?

Author Simon Beaufort’s first in this historical series has conceived a thriller based on fact.  Conspiracy, ambition and treachery were foremost amongst the issues facing the Crusaders, not just the Saracens.  An enjoyable read full of action, and hard to put down.