The Monastery Murders
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The novel also features the book called The Vision of Tundale, which bears some resemblance to Dante’s fourteenth-century Inferno. Inferno is one of the three major sections of his Divine Comedy. But Tundale was written in 1149 by an Irish monk named Marcus, who ended up at a monastery in Regensburg in Bavaria. The book was hugely popular throughout the Middle Ages and was translated into over a dozen languages. It was especially popular in the Cistercian order.
It was my discovery of Tundale that inspired my novel. I was already pleased to find a link to Ireland through its authorship by an Irish monk. But when I began to read it and discovered that the story related that Tundale was in the city of Cork, my home city, when he collapsed and met his fates, I knew that it was meant to be.
Acknowledgments
The thanks that I give here can never truly reflect the debt I owe to so many people for their help and support in making this book happen. My agent, Josh Getzler, is as big a cheerleader for the twelfth century as I could ever hope him to be. My publishers, Thomas & Mercer, have been as wonderful as always. Jack Butler has brought Stanton and Barling to so many readers, as well as providing the best editorial insight and guidance. He also gave me the great gift of Mike Jones as an editor, and the eagle-eyed Ian Critchley. Mike’s wealth of experience helped me to bring this book to a different level and to make it really shine. Ian made sure that every dot was joined up, for which I am hugely grateful. Hatty Stiles was tireless as ever in making sure that the world gets to hear about my novels, helped by Nicole Wagner, who went the extra mile many times for me. There are many historians whose excellent work I have consulted and who are mentioned in the bibliography. I have the most stalwart readers and reviewers, who never let me down with their unwavering support. And, as always, my Jon and my Angela: to thank them feels utterly inadequate as they are my world.
List of Characters
The King’s Men
Hugo Stanton, messenger to the law court and pupil of Aelred Barling
Aelred Barling, senior royal clerk
Ranulf de Glanville, justice of King Henry II
The Monks of Fairmore Abbey
Philip, abbot and father of the abbey
Reginald, the prior and deputy to the abbot
Maurice, the novice master
Osmund, the cellarer
William, the infirmarer
Elias, the librarian
Silvanus, the guestmaster
Lambert, the gatekeeper
Cuthbert, the late sacrist
Ernald, the late abbot
Daniel, a lay brother
Visitors to the Abbey
Juliana, a benefactor of the abbey
Agatha, a beggar
Nicholas, visiting abbot of Linwood Abbey
Others
Theobald, priest of the local parish of Gottburn
Bibliography
No historical novelist could do what they do without the sterling work of historians, and I am no exception. Any factual inaccuracies in my book are of course down to me and not to them. For anybody wishing to delve deeper into the real history behind this novel, I can highly recommend the following:
Barrow, Julia, The Clergy in the Medieval World: Secular Clerics, Their Families and Careers in North-Western Europe, c. 800–c. 1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Birkedal-Brunn, Mette, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Cistercian Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Brundage, James A., Medieval Canon Law (London: Routledge, 2013).
Burton, Janet, The Monastic Order in Yorkshire 1069–1215, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Burton, Janet & Kerr, Julie, The Cistercians in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2011).
Foster, Edward E., ed., Three Purgatory Poems: The Gast of Gy, Sir Owain, The Vision of Tundale (Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University, 2004).
France, James, Separate but Equal: Cistercian Lay Brothers 1120–1350, (Minnesota: Cistercian Publications, 2012).
Gardiner, Eileen, ed., Visions of Heaven & Hell Before Dante (New York: Italica Press, 1989).
Kerr, Julie, Life in the Medieval Cloister (London: Continuum Publishing, 2009).
About the Author
Photo © 2012 Angela Channell
E.M. Powell’s historical thriller Fifth Knight novels have been #1 Amazon and Bild bestsellers. The Monastery Murders is the second novel in her Stanton and Barling medieval murder mystery series. She is a contributing editor to International Thriller Writers’ The Big Thrill magazine, blogs for English Historical Fiction Authors and is the social media manager for the Historical Novel Society.
Born and raised in the Republic of Ireland into the family of Michael Collins (the legendary revolutionary and founder of the Irish Free State), she now lives in North-West England with her husband, daughter and a Facebook-friendly dog. Find out more by visiting www.empowell.com.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Historical Note
Acknowledgments
List of Characters
Bibliography
About the Author