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Blood Runs Thicker: The must-read mediaeval mysteries series (Bradecote and Catchpoll Book 8) by [Sarah Hawkswood]

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Sarah Hawkswood

Blood Runs Thicker: The must-read mediaeval mysteries series (Bradecote and Catchpoll Book 8) Kindle Edition

by Sarah Hawkswood (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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‘A series that started well and grows stronger all the time. Both characterisation and historical detail are impeccable and the plot is intriguing and cleverly interwoven' Mystery People

August 1144. Osbern de Lench is known far and wide as a hard master, whose temper is perpetually frayed. After riding to survey his land and the incoming harvest from the top of the nearby hill, his horse returns to the hall riderless and the lifeless body of the lord is found soon after.

Was it the work of thieves, or something closer to home? With an heir who is cast in the same hot-tempered mould, sworn enemies for neighbours, and something amiss in the relationship between Osbern and his wife, undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, the wily Serjeant Catchpoll and apprentice Walkelin have suspects aplenty.

‘Ms Hawkswood clearly knows her stuff, both as a historian and a crafter of mysteries' Historical Novels Society

Print length

206 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Allison & Busby
Publication date

18 Mar. 2021
File size

695 KB
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Review

Ms Hawkswood clearly knows her stuff, both as a historian and a crafter of mysteries' --Historical Novels Society

'Her elegant and carefully chosen prose keep you glued to the page. She creates a medieval world of her ow n and drags the reader deeply into it...a must-read' --Crime Review on Ordeal of Fire --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Sarah Hawkswood describes herself as a 'wordsmith' who is only really happy when writing. She read Modern History at Oxford and first published a non-fiction book on the Royal Marines in the First World War before moving on to medieval mysteries set in Worcestershire. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN : B08GP3C513
Publisher : Allison & Busby (18 Mar. 2021)
Language : English
File size : 695 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 206 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 4,922 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 102 in Historical Mysteries (Kindle Store)
- 167 in Historical Thrillers (Books)
- 1,794 in Mysteries (Books)

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17 ratings

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ELzabeth Livingstone

Excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 March 2021

Verified Purchase

Never fails to capture the imagination of the reader and feeling they know who the villain is. The author, as in previous adventures of the
fabulous trio kept the reader guessing until the end!

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Jack mckeever

A gritty, gripping, thrilling medieval whodunnit

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 March 2021

The historical thriller genre has always been a fan favourite. Thanks to writers like C. J. Samson, Ellis Peters and Ariana Franklin, it has enjoyed years in the sun recently. And Sarah Hawkswood is well in the fray as well, which is where we find her new Bradecote novel Blood Runs Thicker.

Set in Worcestershire in the mid-12th century, the De Lench family is sent spiralling into crisis when Osbern, the lord of the manor, is found dead. Called to try and put the pieces of a murderous, complex puzzle together, Hugh Bradecote, his assistants Serjeant Catchpoll and Walkelin get drawn into a murky world of treachery, layers of intrigue and questionable morality.

With a vast number of suspects, finding out the truth behind Osbern’s death is as brain-bending for them as it is riveting for us.

Hawkswood’s novel has several classic elements of whodunnit storytelling. There are multiple motives and murky disingenuous characters. There’s familial disenfranchisement, dark pasts a-plenty and simmering feuds. She even has her own Poirot in the shape of Bradecote, a methodical, moral and timely detective who sees through cracks in society to its often-rotten core.

The intricacies and twists are readable and clever without ever being pretentious or having the visible urge to prove itself so.

But there’s also real authenticity here. The scene setting is often beautifully evocative:

‘The church was silent except for the sound of a lone voice chanting in Latin, which faltered as they opened the door’.

And it’s in those moments that you feel like you’re part of the novel itself, sucked in and second-guessing suspects as much as you’re trying to stay one step ahead.

Adding to that flavour is the exuberant dialogue and the cloying sense of claustrophobia in the setting of rural, feudal Worcestershire. Everything feels closer and more inescapable, and when the accusations fly it can get suitably chaotic.

Despite taking place in 1144, central to Hawkswood’s prose is a deep and refreshingly modern lens. There’s a lot about strength in femininity, toxic masculinity and the destruction it causes, and a flipping of gender roles between men and women.

The female characters are given strident voices whilst also being conduits for ethics, personal strength and integrity. Bradecote is pretty much a 21st century feminist, but the modernism is always handled with total care and never feels out of place.

There are also, in the book’s more poignant moments, ruminations on the way very little changes, and in particular the lack of accountability for many men. That this is addressed makes a very welcome change.

Blood Runs Thicker knows it audience, knows it art form and appeases both magnificently. It’s in the dynamics between characters and Hawkswood’s simple but soul-seeing writing that one becomes attached. And while the left-hooks lead to a direct conclusion, it never loses its grittiness or engagement throughout.

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WhatCathyReadNext

Skilfully crafted medieval murder mystery

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 March 2021

Readers new to the series can be reassured that Blood Runs Thicker can definitely be enjoyed without having read any of the previous books, the occasional references to earlier events and the back stories of the leading characters, including some personal tragedies and longstanding enmities, being subtly introduced.

It was a pleasure to be reunited with Hugh Bradecote, Undersheriff of Worcestershire, and Serjeant Catchpoll. Also, enthusiastic young Walkelin, Catchpoll’s apprentice, ever eager to prove his abilities and showing early signs of a keen intelligence. Bradecote and Catchpoll make an effective team each contributing something different. Bradecote has the status to ensure they get access to those they need to speak to whilst Catchpoll possesses the detective nous and a rather intimidating gaze. Once again, they deploy their equivalent of a ‘good cop, bad cop’ strategy or perhaps more accurately ‘toff cop, common cop’. At one point, as they plan how to go about questioning the villagers of Lench, Catchpoll proposes, “Do you come the high and mighty and let me act the willing vessel into which they pours their remembering?” In fact, Catchpoll exhibits a touching pride in the signs of Bradecote’s developing investigative instincts. Observing Bradecote’s questioning of a suspect, ‘Catchpoll very nearly sighed with pleasure. This was just how serjeanting worked.’

In my review of River of Sins I noted that it had all the features of a police procedural but transported to medieval Worcestershire. The same is true of Blood Runs Thicker. Like their modern day counterparts, Bradecote and Catchpoll visit crime scenes in the search for clues and physical evidence, closely examine the body of the victim to establish the cause of death, interview witnesses and explore possible motives.

What they refuse to do is accept without question the accusation by Osbern’s son, Baldwin, now the new Lord of Lench, that his half-brother, Hamo, is responsible for their father’s death. Whilst Baldwin has inherited the short temper and high-handed nature of his father, Hamo is a gentler character albeit with a rather single-minded and literal way of thinking, often showing little emotion. Today we would probably recognize Hamo as being on the autistic spectrum but it’s not surprising that the villagers of Lench find it strange and unsettling.

Bradecote and Catchpoll begin their search for suspects with the neighbouring lords of the manors, Raoul Parler and Walter Pipard, both of whom Osbern was widely known to have fallen out with. As Bradecote observes, “in dangerous times… petty rivalries hid beneath greater ones”. These greater ones include the constantly shifting loyalties of English nobles between Empress Maude and King Stephen, the warring rivals for the English throne.

As before, alongside what turns out to be a particularly complex mystery that had me a little baffled at some points, the author creates a vivid sense of what daily life for the inhabitants of an 11th century manor house and estate must have been like. Above all, the profound desire of everyone for a successful harvest to stave off hunger in the months to come. The latter is a concern Hugh Bradecote shares for his own estate. His wife, Christina, just wants Hugh back safely.

Blood Runs Thicker is another well-crafted historical mystery involving love, betrayal and family secrets. Fans of the series will be pleased to learn a further instalment is promised for later this year.

Helpful

anne

Full of twists and turns

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 March 2021

This a welcome return to the Medieval world of this entertaining Author .

Obnoxious local lord, Osbern de Lench , has taken his regular trip around his estate ......... but only his
horse returns .... a search takes place and he is soon found , dead .
The Sherriff despatches his best team of investigators - Hugh Bradecote, the undersheriff, Catchpoll, the serjeant & young Walkelin, the serjeanting apprentice.
They soon find a troubled environment of sibling rivalry , adultery , violence against women and neighbours' feuds - it appears that no one regrets the death of Osbern .
Our trio are hard pressed to find the murderer/murderers with many threads to untangle if they are to succeed
and solve the case ..

This a plot full of twists and turns , set in an era whose mores are different to our own . The Author draws a masterful picture that draws the reader in .........

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

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