Thomas the Falconer Mystery series – Book 3

‘This tale gives an authentic sense of Elizabethan life’s visceral side with all its lawlessness and brutality, including a climatic battle.’ Publishers Weekly

Thomas the Falconer confronts the most terrible foe he has ever faced.

On remote Salisbury Plain villagers toil to get the harvest in, unaware that a murderer has come amongst them.

Thomas Finbow, falconer to Sir Robert Vicary, is sent to the Plain by his master to assist the impoverished Sir Giles Buckeridge, who struggles with debts and the failure to provide dowries for his three spirited daughters.

Thomas is here to train a ramage hawk – an immature, half-wild bird – and to teach the arts of falconry to Sir Giles’s young ward, Gervase.

But no sooner has he arrived than Sir Giles’s eldest daughter Jane vanishes.

She is betrothed against her wishes to a wealthy older man, Stephen Ridley – has she simply run away?

Thomas is called in to help find the missing girl. But the search soon turns into a dangerous game, involving hidden gold – and as the body count rises and fear grips the land, Thomas has no choice but to follow the trail to its bitter end.