THE TAINTED RELIC

Sorry about the first post - hit the wrong key!!

This book features various authors:
Michael Jecks
Susanna Gregory
Bernard Knight
Ian Morson
Philip Gooden
Simon Beaufort

The prologue is by Simon Beaufort, and then the other authors follow on with the theme of the story. I particularly enjoyed this aspect: (I recently joined a writing group, and we have just completed an exercise along the same lines).

July 1100 Jerusalem is the setting - the Holy City has been ransacked by the Crusader armies, and amidst the chaos, an English Knight named Geoffrey Mappestone is entrusted with a valuable religious relic - a fragment of the true cross, allegedly stained with the Blood of Christ. And the relic is said to be cursed - anyone who touches it will meet with an untimely end as soon as it leaves their possession.

Several decades later the Cross turns up, and Bernard Knight's character Crowner John joins the story.
Next stage is in Oxford 1269, Ian Morson's sleuth William Falconer is the person investigating a spate of deaths.
1323 sees Sir Baldwin (author Michael Jecks) with the solving of 5 deaths.
30 years later, Matthew Bartholomew and Brother Michael have their parts to play, and finally the relic is now in London, and Philip Gooden's character Nick Revill features.

The stories are well written and you would think that the same author has penned the book - good characters all the way through.

All of the authors(historical mystery writers) are members of the Crime Writers Association and this has been a great collaboration.

Trisha