Sarah Hawkswood's 'Too Good to Hang' 2023

 

Allison & Busby first paperback edition - 2023

This is Sarah Hawkswood's eleventh 'Medieval Mystery' involving the tenacious trio Hugh Bradecote, Serjeant Catchpole and Underserjeant Walkelin and the series has settled into a pleasant, readable, if unintellectual, groove. I finished it in two sittings by a roaring fire and was able to get up several times for liquid refreshment before easily picking up the flow of the story. Hawkswood is one of three authors whom I regularly pre-order in paperback - the others being Scott Mariani (two novels a year) and Susanna Gregory (now down to just the Thomas Chaloner series and only one outing every two years). They all, in their different ways, give me the light reading which leavens the more serious biographies, histories and 19th century (mainly Scottish) novels that consume much of my reading and thinking time. Unfortunately, C.J. Sansom's last book in the excellent Matthew Shardlake series was in 2018, with no successor seemingly on the way. The only other 'modern' series I subscribe to is Nicola Upson's 'Josephine Tey' outings. Ten have been published since An Expert in Murder (2008) and the eleventh book, Shot with Crimson, should be on its way to me shortly.

Back to medieval Worcestershire. The intrepid trio travel to the hamlet of Ripple to investigate the murder of one of the local priests, Father Edmund, and the subsequent hanging of a ploughboy, Thorgar. It soon becomes clear that the priest was a lecherous seeker after young girls and generally a nasty piece  of work. Moreover, Thorgar appears to be one of the last persons one would have thought capable of murder. In fact, he was hoping to be accepted into the abbey of Tewkesbury as a novice. There are the usual array of possible culprits, but suspicion increasingly turns to Selewine, the hamlet's Reeve. Does this prove to be correct, or is this another blind alley? All will be revealed, after 286 pages.

The author has now successfully established the characters of Bradecote, Catchpole and Walkelin and, in particular, has allowed the latter to 'develop'. He is now married to his long-time Welsh sweetheart, Eluned, and much of his waking thoughts are devoted to trying to get back to Worcester and the nuptial bed. Bishop Simon of Worcester and William de Beauchamp, Sheriff of Worcester, make fleeting appearances, but Hawkswood is best when describing the peasants and their bovine, repetitive lives in Ripple. They do feel like real people and certainly no caricatures. The book starts and ends

Spring, everyone agreed, had come a little early this year, and the plough-team had made very good progress in the Great Field. Easter would be late in April, and it was thought that nearly all the spring sowing would be complete by Holy Week...

The Ripple folk did not move or speak, as they watched the three riders, with Wilf the Worrier (going to be hanged for killing and then burying his wife in the garden) trailing behind, head towards the Old Road, and only when they were lost to sight did Tofi call them to take up their bags of seed and their tools, and head to the field.