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The Elixir of Death (Crowner John Mystery) (Hardcover)

by Bernard Knight (Author)
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Price: £18.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 268 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd (3 April 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0743259513
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743259514
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.4 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 836,176 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #25 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > K > Knight, Bernard

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Product Description

Product Description

Prince John still plots to seize the throne from his brother, Richard the Lionheart - and in his wicked schemes he is actively supported by King Philip of France who offers to help John financially by sending him a mysterious alchemist, a Mohammedan named Nizam, who claims to be able to turn base metals into solid gold. But the ship which was transporting Nizam and his retainers to the Devon tin mines is found wrecked off the south Devon coast, its crew savagely slaughtered. Shortly afterwards, Sir Peter le Calve, a Norman knight living near Exeter, is foully murdered, being part-crucified and beheaded, his head stuck on the roodscreen of the cathedral. It's up to Sir John de Wolfe, the county coroner, to find a motive and connection between the killlings. And just what is his unscrupulous brother-in-law, the disgraced ex-sheriff and known Prince John-sympathiser, Richard de Revelle, trying to hide?


About the Author

Professor Bernard Knight, CBE, became a Home Office Pathologist in 1965 and was appointed Professor of Forensic Pathology, University of Wales College of Medicine, in 1980. During his 40-year career with the Home Office, he performed over 25,000 autopsies, and was involved in many high profile cases, including that of Fred and Rose West (he examined all twelve bodies that were recovered) and the child killer, Mary Bell. The author of ten novels, a biography and numerous popular and academic non-fiction books, he has written six books in the Crowner John mystrey series.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars From Across "The Pond", 30 Aug 2007
By P. Schaum "prussblue" (St. Louis area, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Elixir of Death (Crowner John Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)
I have to concur with J. Chippinadale regarding the quality of Bernard Knight's writing. As far as the Crowner John Mystery Series, I believe that I have all of the series at present as well as a few others. While I enjoy my academic readings, one must have their murder mystery to enjoy too and these are so well written and historically detailed you just can't wait until the next in the series is released. As a matter of fact, I have gone to purchasing from amazon.uk because publishers for Knight and others such as Michael Jecks seem to enjoy not releasing titles in the U.S. until months after releas in the U.K. It is quite unfair to have to wait so long for something so good.

By the way, service to the U.S. by amazon.uk is excellent! I must thank them for their customer service.
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Crowner John Mystery, 5 Aug 2006
By J. Chippindale (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Elixir of Death (Crowner John Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)
Crowner John or to give him his correct title, Sir John de Wolfe, is one of my all time favourite characters in medieval mysteries and if you read or are going to read this or any other of Bernard Knight's Crowner John Mysteries, you will probably understand why.. Dour and more than a little fierce looking but totally honest and incorruptible and a staunch follower of King Richard the Lionheart. He is the total opposite of his brother-in-law the Sheriff of Exeter, apart from the fact that the both have an eye for the ladies.

Prince John is continuing to plot the seize the throne of England away from his brother Richard and he has a staunch and influential ally in Philip the King of France. Philip offers to help solve Prince john's financial problems by sending him an alchemist who claims to be able to transform base metals into gold. But both the ship the alchemist was on and all of the crew are found ship wrecked and murdered off the Devon coast.

Later a knight living close to Exeter is found murdered under mysterious circumstances. It's up to the Crowner to piece the puzzle together are two deeds connected and what is his brother the Sheriff and a staunch supporter of Prince John attempting to hide?

I don't think that Bernard Knight has written a bad book, certainly not in the Crowner John series and this one certainly lives up to expectations. I loved reading it.
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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Errorful, 1 Feb 2009
By Nicholas Casley (Plymouth, Devon, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: The Elixir of Death (Crowner John Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the tenth in Knight's series of Crowner John mysteries.

I was in an Exeter bookshop and came across a stand containing all of the books in the series. Since I have a liking for historical detective novels - especially those situated in the Middle Ages - and since I have researched and written about the medieval landscape of Devon, I was more than a little intrigued. So I chose the story based closest to my home city of Plymouth, namely this one, `The Elixir of Death'.

In his interesting opening author's note, Knight seeks to ground his work in historical reality, providing background information about the coroner and his work, as well as information about Islam and the peoples of the Middle East. These latter aspects play an important part in the story that enfolds in rural south Devon. There then follows a couple of excellent maps and a glossary of specialist terms stretching from `abjuring the realm' to `vulgate'. Dated November 1195, the opening chapter is titled, "In which Crowner John is called to the shore." All well and good, and to be commended.

But then, on page three, `Plymouth' is mentioned in the text, and my doubts about the book start to rise, for the concept of a town called Plymouth at this point in history has no supporting evidence. The town was called Sutton well into the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It did not gain a market grant until 1254, so to talk about the place as a major port, and as a place of strangers is anachronistic. At this point of the Middle Ages, for largely defensive reasons, it was the places hidden at the heads of the estuaries along the south coast - Plympton, Totnes, Kingsbridge, rather than Plymouth, Dartmouth, or Salcombe - that were the ports. To assert that Salcombe was "a bustling little town" and as a pilgrimage point is quite laughable!

Continuing on the subject of medieval geography, I know the Bigbury area quite well. But those visiting the parish in the hope of finding St Milburga's oratory are going to be disappointed, for no such place exists. The hamlet of St Annes Chapel exists, but it could not have been named as such in the twelfth century, as her feast day was not introduced into England until 1378. It was not until the fourteenth century that St Anne achieved popularity and it is only then that the place-name arises in parishes in the Plymouth area - as well as Bigbury, they exist in Plymstock and Calstock.

There are other items in the text that I fear betray an ignorance of medieval life and thought. For example, I have issues with the mention of `nirvana', and `porcelain', and the word `forest' had a different meaning from that of today. (In the time of King John, I believe the whole of Devon was a royal forest - in its sense of a place of hunting.) Recent studies have also shown that the presence of woodland in the medieval Devon landscape was not quite as prevalent as had been thought.

What else? Well, the earliest recorded chantries in England date to the thirteenth century, so to talk of chantry priests in 1195 is a misnomer. In addition, the rood screen that is described in Exeter Cathedral seems too elaborate for its time: remember, we are in the Early English period of architectural ornament, not the Decorated. And the habit of a lord eating in a separate room away from the hall and his servants did not commence until the later Middle Ages.

So much for the attempts at historical accuracy! But what about the story itself? Well, it's an engaging yarn with a contemporary relevance as it involves the twelfth-century equivalent of Islamic suicide bombers. (Oh, purlease!) The only flaw in the plot that I could spot was when Raymond de Blois and Richard de Revelle were in the cellar tied up with their hands behind their backs: could they not therefore untie each other's ropes?

Compared to, say Ellis Peters's novels in the Cadfael series, Bernard Knight's is a poor relation when it comes to historical accuracy, no matter how well he describes the twelfth-century system under which a coroner worked. So, in the end my expectations in this book and the series were disappointed and I will not be purchasing any more from it.
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1.0 out of 5 stars Elixir of Death - Bored to Death
This book was very disappointing after "Fear In The Forest" which I enjoyed.
An unlikely plot laboriously told with constant repetition. Read more
Published 14 months ago by L. Murphy

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