P.C. Doherty

Page Updated: 05/03/03

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P.C. Doherty - Page 4

The Rose Demon

Satan's Fire

The House of Crows

Paperback - Headline (1998)

First British Edition Headline (1997)

The Rose Demon
See Review by Phyllis Davis
An epic, spine-chilling story of terror, mystery and black magic set in the Middle Ages from a master storyteller.

In Paradise, in the glades of Eden,
Eve was tempted twice: first by Lucifer
Then by Rosifer who offered her
a rose plucked from Heaven

Matthias Fitzosbert is the illegitimate son of the parish priest of the village of Sutton Courteny in Gloucestershire. Despite the recent spate of murders near to the village, each day he braves the dark woods that lead to the ruins of Tenebral to visit his friend, a mysterious hermit who shows him many strange and beautiful things and who tells him about Rosifer, the fallen angel who was God's gardener, who laid out Paradise for Adam and Eve. Though enthralled, the boy is always puzzled by his lessons with the hermit - never more so than the night the villagers hunt the hermit down, and burn him, believing him to be responsible for the many deaths. The hermit's words to Matthias will haunt the boy for the rest of his life: 'I have glimpsed the love of God. You can lose heaven for love; be damned for love, and for all eternity, turn your face against the Lord God because of love. And if you love it creates an eternal hunger in you.'
The Rose Demonexplores the nature of Matthias's unique relationship with the spirit he loves yet hates, strives to placate but ultimately flees from. And his story is played out against the vivid panorama of medieval life; the fall and sack of Constantinople, the last throes of the turbulent Wars of the Roses, the terror of witchcraft, the loneliness of the Scottish marches, the battlefields of Spain and finally the lush jungles of the Caribbean where the Rose Demon and Mathias meet for a final, dramatic confrontation.
Acclaim for P.C.Doherty's medieval novels:
'Offers plenty of thrills and spills and runs the whole gamut of human emotion' Peterborough Evening Telegraph
'Master storyteller' Time Out
'I really like these medieval whodunnits' Sarah Broadhurst, Bookseller
'Wholly excellent, this is one of those books you hate to put down' Prima
'A powerful compound of history and intrigue' Redbridge Guardian
'Historically informative, excellently plotted and as ever, superbly entertaining' CADS

Satan's Fire
In 1303 the Old Man of the Mountain remembers back to when he nearly killed Edward of England almost thirty years before. He never forgets his prey - and now decides to release an imprisoned leper knight to avenge old grievances.
One windswept evening a few months later two nuns are hurrying to their mother house in York when they smell the sickly odour of burning human flesh. Rounding the corner, they confront the macabre sight of a man being hungrily consumed by a roaring fire. News of this grisly death meets Edward I of England as he arrives in York for secret negotiations with the leaders of the military Order of the Temple. His unease deepens for, as he enters the city, a would-be regicide attempts to murder him. When the assassin, wearing the livery of the Templar Order, is found dead - having been engulfed by a mysterious fire Edward immediately enlists the help of his Keeper of the Secret Seal, Sir Hugh Corbett, to investigate.

The House of Crows
London Coroner Sir John Cranston and his faithful clerk, Brother Athelstan, return to pit their wits against a bloody murderer and the assassin in the House of Crows.
It's the spring of 1380 and the Regent John of Gaunt needs money supplies for his war against the French. Unfortunately the members Of parliament at Westminster are proving especially stubborn - and the Regent's cause is not aided when some representatives from the shire of Shrewsbury are foully murdered. John of Gaunt orders Cranston to find the assassin before he loses every chance of obtaining the taxes he requires.
On top of that, Sir John and Brother Athelstan have their own problems. Someone is stealing cats from the streets and alleyways of Cheapside. And terrified parishioners are insisting that a devil incarnate is prowling around the parish of St Erconwald's, claiming innocent lives...