Crispinus, the head of Oronsay Priory is found dead and the Lord of the Isles, gives the task of finding the murderer to the Prior’s bastard son.  Since he left the monastery, Muirteach has spent his time as scribe for his uncle, an island chieftain.  The prior leaves behind a mistress and several bastard sons, including the eldest, Muirteach, who never again has to hear his father’s words, “My bastard son, the cripple.”  Muirteach is helped by the physician Fearchar Beaton and his daugher Mariota.  Many people are suspects as the prior had many enemies.  When the killer strikes again, the Lord of the Isle wants the mystery cleared up quickly before the Pope and the King hear of it.  Muirteach’s investigation uncovers deceit, long buried sins and treachery, from which no one emerges unscathed. 

Set in Scotland, 1373, Susan McDuffie, pulls her readers into a medieval world as real as the one we live in now.  The reader will be able to experience to sights, sounds and scents that she so cleverly describes.  Ms. McDuffie has the storyteller’s gift of giving her reader characters that are flesh and blood.  The reader will learn to care for its heroes and heroines.  She has written a great mystery and the reader will be very satisfied with its ending.  This reviewer was riveted to her chair while reading, wondering who on earth the murderer was.  If you like Ellis Peter’s Brother Cadfael mysteries, then this is a book for you.  This reviewer hopes to see more stories involving the central characters of this gripping story and she will be first in line to get it.

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