Chaucer and the House of Fame (Chaucer mysteries) - Tapa dura

It is 1370, and England and France are still battling it out in what is now known as the Hundred Years War. England is in imminent danger of losing most of her territorial possessions in France. At this critical moment, Geoffrey Chaucer, ambitious poet and protégé of the kings powerful son John of Gaunt, is sent on a secret mission to the Comte de Guyac. His task is to persuade this key French nobleman to stay loyal to the English cause. After a hazardous journey, Chaucer and his companions reach de Guyac's stronghold on the Dordogne in south-west France. Their welcome is warm - Chaucer was once in love with Isabelle, the Comte's sister - but within a few days, abruptly, everything changes. Tragedy strikes when, at the end of a hunting expedition, de Guyac is discovered with a crossbow bolt through the throat. He is presumed murdered and the finger of suspicion points firmly at the new English arrivals. The murder investigation that ensues turns the poet diplomat into a fugitive, and Chaucer soon realises he must use all his wits to discover the real culprit if he is to save his own skin . . . With his trademark sense of place and time, Morgan convincingly and entertainingly unravels the mystery in a wonderfully engaging plot, full of twists and surprises.