The Tainted Relic by The Medieval Murderers

Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. The round-robin formula isn’t new, of course, but the curse neatly links the mostly medieval mysteries.Īnother sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.Ī week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Finally, a raven takes matters into his own beak and the relic disappears-until its final resting place is revealed in modern times.

The relic surfaces once more when William Shakespeare asks player Nick Revill to buy back one of his early plays from a dealer who’s also offering the relic for sale. When the relic pops up 30 years later in Cambridge, Matthew Bartholomew and Brother Michael take their turn at solving more mysterious deaths as a contentious scholarly debate rages around them. By 1323, his protection has evidently expired, and Sir Baldwin must solve several murders in Exeter. The priceless relic, which is said to kill any unauthorized party who touches it, is sent on to Tewkesbury Abbey to appear next in 1269, when William Falconer solves the death of an Oxford monk with the help of the Templar, who swears to protect the relic and prevent any future deaths.

In 1194, Robert Blundus, Devonshire dealer in relics, is attacked and murdered, and investigator Crowner John must work his way through a thicket of false accusations to save his mistress.

A purported fragment of the True Cross stained with the blood of Christ is cursed by its Arab keeper, providing centuries of mysterious deaths for familiar detectives to solve.

The Tainted Relic by The Medieval Murderers