by Lorie Lewis Ham

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win an ebook copy of Season of Blood, and a link to purchase it from Amazon, and an indie bookstore where a portion of the sale goes to help support KRL.

I am a big fan of Jeri Westerson’s Medieval Noir mystery series featuring disgraced former knight Crispin Guest! With the release of the tenth book in this series, Season of Blood, my love does not waver, as the series just keeps getting better!

Crispin has taken his skills as a former knight and turned them into a new kind of occupation-that of a tracker. He can find anything, including murderers. While his financial status has gone up a bit lately, allowing him to have better lodgings, little else has changed. Crispin’s weakness for drink and women remain the same, and it is the later that brings him trouble in this latest book.

A mysterious and beautiful woman hires Crispin to find her missing niece who seems to have run off with a married man–a man that Crispin knows all too well, former Sheriff Simon Wynchecombe. A monk ends up dead on Crispin’s doorstep and it is Simon’s knife in the dead man’s back. Even though he does not like Simon, Crispin finds it hard to believe he would kill a monk. The corpse also brings with him another problem–he has a religious relic in his possession. Crispin has had way more experience with missing relics than he cares for, so he hopes to quickly be rid of this one. Of course, things don’t work out quite that way. More dead bodies, people who aren’t who they say they are, a con artist, Church politics, trying to prove the innocence of a man he hates–could things get any more complicated for Crispin?

While I enjoy the Medieval setting of these stories, and the mysteries are always filled with interesting twists and turns, it is the characters that I love most. Crispin, a cynical former knight, who still tries to live by his former code of honor but struggles with his own demons. His assistant Jack, who has grown from a young street boy thief, into a young man who has learned much from Crispin. Idealistic young lawyer Nigellus Cobmartin, who is newer to the series and continues to surprise. And one of my favorites, Crispin’s interesting friend John Rykener, who is a cross dressing gay prostitute living in a world where that could get him killed. They all come together to help Crispin with this perplexing mystery.

If you have not yet tried the Crispin Guest series, don’t miss it! I highly recommend starting from the beginning so you can see the characters grow and change, but you can jump in with the new one and still enjoy this complicated mystery. But then you will HAVE to go back and read all of the rest!

To enter to win an ebook copy Season of Blood, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “season,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen March 10, 2018. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

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Use this link to purchase the book & a portion goes to help support KRL & indie bookstore Mysterious Galaxy:

Season of Blood: A Medieval Mystery (Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mystery #9)

You can also use this link to purchase the book on Amazon. If you have ad blocker on you may not see the link:

Lorie Lewis Ham is our Editor-in-Chief and a contributor to various sections, coupling her journalism experience with her connection to the literary and entertainment worlds. Explore Lorie’s mystery writing at Mysteryrat’s Closet.

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