<DIV><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">After the discovery of three savagely murdered bodies in his parish, Brother Athelstan finds himself involved in the hunt for a dangerous killer. It is clear that two of the victims—a whore and a preacher—surprised the assassin, who was then forced to kill them. But the identity of the third victim and the reason someone would go to so much trouble to kill him remains a mystery. Could the slaying have any connection with Sir John Cranston's attempt to save a woman unjustly accused of stabbing a clerk?</P></DIV>