The Twice-Hanged Man: A Medieval Mystery

Edward I’s England is again at war with Wales in Royal’s excellent 15th whodunit set in 13th-century Britain (after 2018’s Wild Justice). Prioress Eleanor, concerned about her brother, Robert, and his pregnant wife, Elizabeth, in Wales, accompanies the couple across the border to her ancestral property in England. The move enables Elizabeth to give birth in safety, but Eleanor’s respite proves short-lived. The local abbot, Gerald, insists that she help with a terrifying mystery. Gerald’s priest, Father Payn, was found dead on a path to the abbey by Bardolph, the hangman, who recognized the man kneeling over the corpse as Hywel, a Welshman who was recently executed for murdering English soldiers. Bardolph insists that the man he saw was Hywel, even as he asserts that Hywel was definitely dead after the hanging. While Father Payn’s corpse bears no marks of violence, another death more strongly indicates that foul play is at work. Royal seamlessly integrates historical events into what stands as one her best puzzles, the most Agatha Christie–like in terms of motive. (Feb.)