Customer Reviews
Whatever the "Manor" - By: P. Schaum, 29 Jun 2008 
I will be concise. If Bernard Knight wrote it, I read it & that includes his non-fiction. One is never disappointed with a "Crowner John" read & one knows that he is "right on" with his history. I look at Knight & Jecks as a team so to speak. You expect & receive excellence in writing
despite the book market these days.
Book Twelve in the Crowner John Series - By: J. Chippindale, 01 Apr 2008 Bernard Knight, or to give him his correct title, Professor Bernard Knight, CBE, was a pathologist to the Home office until 1980 when he was appointed Professor of Forensic Pathology at the University of Wales College of medicine, 1980. He has written the extremely successful Crowner John series of medieval mysteries, of which there are now twelve books, His character Crowner John is certainly among my favourite characters in medieval mysteries.
The books are set in 12th century Devon where Crowner (coroner) John has a running battle with. the corrupt Richard de Revelle, Sir John's brother.-in-law, & ex-sheriff. On the surface, for the sake of his wife, Sir John de Wolfe attempts to keep up a working relationship with his brother-in-law, but secretly he regards the sheriff with rank distaste. Sir John, a staunch supporter of Richard the Lionheart, has no time for Sir Richard, who is siding with Prince John while Richard is away.
The post of Crowner (coroner) is a relatively new one & Sir John is still treated with a great deal of mistrust, not least because of the fines that he must impose when there has been a violent death of any kind. So when Sir John is callled to investigate an unidentified body found in Axmouth, he is not particularly concerned to find that the inhabitants of the town close ranks & are unwilling to divulge what, if anything they know about the manner of the young man's death.
It is only later that Sir John realises that the reticence among the seafarer's & townsfolk regarding the suspicious death is something far more sinister than the normal lack of interest in the duties of the newly appointed Coroner's office. Sir John will need alll his powers of persuasion & his strong sword arm to see this case through to it's conclusion.
