Crowner John Mysteries

The Crowner John Mysteries are a series of novels by Bernard Knight following the fictional life of one Sir John de Wolfe, a former Crusading Knight appointed to the office of Keeper of the Pleas of the King's Crown (custos placitorum coronas) i.e. the King's Crowner or Coroner, for the county of Devon.

Crowners were appointed in 1194, during the reign of Richard the Lionheart, in every county to check on the corruption of sheriffs, but also to raise as much money as possible towards the payment of the huge ransom after the king's capture in Austria on his return from the Third Crusade.

As Crowner, Sir John has to investigate all sudden deaths, murders, rapes, assaults, fires, wrecks and catches of royal fish, as well as trying to drive as much custom as possible into the royal courts, instead of the old manor and shire courts. We learn that Sir John has a large area to administrate – there are supposed to be three crowners for Devon but he is the only one. In all this, he is assisted by Gwyn, his old Cornish retainer and Thomas de Peyne, an unfrocked priest, who is his clerk. John's surly social climbing wife Matilda is the sister of the sheriff of Exeter, Sir Richard de Revelle, who does all he can to make life difficult for John, who seeks solace in the arms of his Welsh mistress Nesta, the landlady of the Bush Inn in the city.

In Crowner Royal, set in 1196, John is appointed the first Coroner of the Verge by the king. He returns to Exeter in late 1196 in the next novel, A Plague of Hertics.

Apart from John, most of the main characters actually existed in history and every care is taken with research and the creation of atmosphere, to offer an authentic picture of twelfth-century England. Most the places described in the stories can be visited by readers today, even the gatehouse of Rougemont Castle in Exeter, where John had his office.

Novels in the Crowner John Series

1. The Sanctuary Seeker (1998)
2. The Poisoned Chalice (1998)
3. Crowner's Quest (1999)
4. The Awful Secret (2000)
5. The Tinner's Corpse (2001)
6. The Grim Reaper (2002)
7. Fear In The Forest (2003)
8. The Witch Hunter (2004)
9. Figure of Hate (2005)
10. The Elixir of Death (2006)
11. The Noble Outlaw (2007)
12. The Manor of Death (2008)
13. Crowner Royal (2009)
14. A Plague of Heretics (2010)

Short stories featuring Crowner John

Crowner John appears in a series of books formed of linked stories written by Philip Gooden, Susanna Gregory, Michael Jecks, Bernard Knight and Ian Morson under the common pseudonym of the Medieval Murderers:

• The Tainted Relic (2005)
• Sword of Shame (2006)
• House of Shadows (2007)
• The Lost Prophecies (2008)

External Links

• [1] author’s web site
• [2] Professor Knight’s Crowner John, Ann Lynn reviews the first six books, 31 May 2002

References

• Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2009
• ”Crowner Royal”, Publishers Weekly, August 24, 2009.