The King's Coroner MTA
A Murder Mystery of Law, Medicine, and Justice in a Royal Court

About this book:

*The King’s Coroner* follows Sir John de Marston, a provincial official tasked with investigating the suspicious death of Lord William de Braose in his locked solar during a bitter medieval winter. Accompanied by his nervous clerk, Peter, Marston utilizes early forensic techniques—observing the "colors of death," measuring wounds, and tracking footprints—to challenge the official narrative of a natural passing. The investigation quickly reveals a complex web of corruption involving the local Sheriff’s attempts to manipulate the legal record, the Abbey of Shap’s extortion through poisoned spices, and the Earl of Lancaster’s involvement in an illicit wine trade.

As Marston navigates the jurisdictional battles between the Crown and the Church, he discovers a second murder at the grange of Kirkstall. This death of a humble tenant farmer, Robert of Ainsty, mirrors the lord's demise, exposing a systematic campaign of fraud where land is seized through forged debts. Marston identifies a hidden passage at Thornegh Manor and matches a discarded boot to the true culprit, realizing that the Lord’s death was a combination of self-administered poison driven by despair and a fatal struggle with the Earl’s agent, Thomas Vane, who sought to suppress a whistleblowing letter.

The story culminates in a dramatic formal hearing at the York Assizes. Marston risks his career by presenting a secret, uncorrupted version of the Coroner’s Roll to the King’s Justices, exposing the Sheriff's interference and the Prior’s complicity. The legal resolution brings a measured justice: the merchant is sentenced to hang, the corrupt Prior is stripped of his office, and the fraudulent land seizures are reversed. The book concludes with Marston returning to his modest home, weary but resolute, reaffirming the vital role of the coroner in protecting the King’s Peace against the machinations of the powerful.