In what seems to be the last in Docherty's series of novels based on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the pilgrims find themselves spending the night in a haunted wood somewhere in Kent; this inspires the Clerk to tell them a tale set partly in a glade in another reputedly haunted wood, Devil's Spinney, in Essex, near the ancient village of Maldon (a place I know well!) and Ravenscroft Castle.
In 1381, Ralph, the Clerk, as a young man in the service of Sir John Grasse, Constable of the Castle, is deeply in love with a seventeen-old local girl, Beatrice Arrowner. They plan to marry very soon. Ralph is also engaged in a search for a legendary treasure, Brythnoth's Cross, which was hidden somewhere in the vicinity hundreds of years earlier at the time of the famous Battle of Maldon.
Meanwhile, in the village, discontented surfs and labourers plot rebellion against the local Constable and plan to join in the nationwide rising against young King Richard and his Uncle John o' Gaunt, and the hated poll-tax.
Then, on the night of May Day, walking alone up on the battlements of the castle, Beatrice is murdered.
So far, so Docherty.
But then everything changes, and this becomes very different from the usual (and admirable - no one can do it better) Docherty medieval mystery. For instead of switching viewpoints to the living, Docherty stays with Beatrice, the murdered girl, as she comes to herself again and realises that she is dead; and from then on we see everything through her eyes though of course they are not actually her eyes, for she (and we) can see her body lying there, see them checking her for signs of life, see them close her eyes.
A HAUNT OF MURDER
Paul Doherty
Medieval Magic and Mystery
> ghosts, devils, angels and "one of the great Lords of Hell, Dominus Achitophel" himself
> the denizens of the "unseen world" influncing events in this world
Medieval Outsiders
> conscious ghosts, aware of what is going on in the real world, but unable to play any part in it: surely the ultinmate outsiders!
> moon people
