Pilgrims are gathering from far and wide to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the translation of Saint Wilfred’s bones to the Benedictine Abbey at Shrewsbury. In distant Winchester, a knight, supporter of the Empress Maud, has been murdered – not apparently an event of importance to those seeking miraculous cures at the saint’s shrine. But among the throng some strange customers indeed begin to puzzle Brother Cadfael – and as the story unfolds it becomes evident that the murder is a much less remote affair than it first seemed.


