The Tainted Relic by
Bernard Knight
pbk out November 05
(Simon Schuster)
at £10.99
An anthology with a difference, this title brings together five of the stars of
the Historical Mystery genre in a series of linked novellas which trace the
history of a dark and cursed relic throughout British history.
1100, at the end of the first crusade, a blood - stained sliver of wood from the
cross on which Christ was crucified is recovered by an English Knight,
Geoffrey Applestone. The relic has been cursed and the tracking of the
murders and the despair which it leaves in its wake, on everyone who handles
it through the ages, is the premise for the book.
Bernard knight, Michael Jecks, Susanna Gregory, Ian Morson and Philip
Gooden, through their various protagonists, take up the baton in turn to relate
the history of the tainted relic from the Crusades to the present day,
covering periods from the medieval to the Shakespearean to the present day
dénouement.
As a unified novel the exercise works well, the whole interlinking convincingly
and the individual novellas also standing well as individual pieces.
The attraction of the historical mystery lies in its mix of the conventional
puzzle of the detection element and the atmosphere and detail of past times
and for the fan there is much here. Monks, mists, madness, taverns; the
evocation of a strange but familiar Other Britain shrouded in time. All the
authors are on form and a tricky exercise, which could have been patchy, is
admirably consistent. A must for any Historical Crime buffs and an ideal
starting point for any reader new to this particular crime genre.
The Tainted Relic by
Bernard Knight
