The King's Riddle

It is the summer of 1089 and, in the communal hall of the village of Maidstone, in Kent, the marriage of a Norman knight and the daughter of a prosperous local miller is being celebrated. The newlywed pair is gloriously happy, but the same cannot be said of their guests, for although it has been twenty-three years since the Battle of Hastings, wedlock between Englishwomen and men of the hated race that conquered their land is still not looked on with favour by the native populace.

When the bride drinks from her mead cup and is struck down dead by poison, the distraught groom claims that one of the villagers is responsible, but the king, Rufus, is not so certain the charge is merited. In an attempt to uncover the truth he appoints Estrid Thunorsdohter—an Englishwoman who possesses a talent for solving riddles—to conduct an enquiry into the crime.

Estrid, although reluctant to be used as a cats-paw by the monarch, has no choice other than to obey the royal dictate and, not long after her arrival in Maidstone, discovers that many of its inhabitants felt some degree of malice towards the murdered bride. A few were jealous of her beauty, others contemptuous of her for agreeing to wed a Norman, and some simply resentful of her father’s affluence, but which one, if any, was filled with enough hateful passion to kill her remains unclear. Finally, Estrid realises that the only way in which she can reveal the killer's identity is to place her own life in danger.


Genre: Historical Mystery