Genius or lunatic? Friar Roger Bacon possibly made some of the most ground-breaking scientific discoveries and wrote them down in an unbreakable code. Edward I of England and Philip IV of France are both determined to be the first to these secrets, but to crack the code, they each need to know what the other knows.

As the scholars of England and France meet at Corfe Castle, danger lurks at every turn. Flemish pirates are massing along the coast, young girls are being killed by crossbow bolts and, one by one, the French scholars are dying in mysterious circumstances. Trapped in the castle with his counterpart and nemesis, Amaury De Craon, Sir Hugh Corbett will need to find the truth quickly – but with the threats at hand, even knowing where the danger is coming from may not be enough to survive it.

Uh-oh, you may be thinking, he’s doing a Paul Doherty re-read. Something’s up! Well, yes, dear reader, Paul is my go-to author when I need an easy-but-worthwhile read. I’m not sure that everybody would agree with my definition of “easy” but Paul is one of the writers of historical mysteries that just makes the world leap off the page. And he tends to put locked room mysteries into his stories too, just for good measure.

So, what’s up to cause me to head back to the early fourteenth century? Well, I was on holiday last week, and I skidded a tad in the shower. My left foot skidded a whole three inches to the left and somehow that seems to have torn some muscle in my leg. And it hurts. And I’m feeling sorry for myself. It has meant that I’ve had to put a couple of “worthy” books that require a bit of concentration aside because that is somewhat shot at the moment – hopefully I’ll get back to those soon. But in the meantime, it’s the old familiar, I’m afraid.

I picked this one, as it’s one of the Hugh Corbett books that I remember the least about, and it’s also, I think, one of the best. There are two distinct murder plots – the girls and the scholars – that overlap in an interesting way, and both murderers are some of Paul’s best-hidden killers. On top of the two murder cases, there’s also the political intrigue as to what exactly de Craon and Philip are up to, and there’s some satisfying stuff there too.

Oh, and there’s a really nice simple solution to the locked room murders. Really nice.

There’s some interesting stuff with Corbett here, especially one sequence where he clearly shows his fallibility by wandering directly into a trap. Ranulf, his sidekick, falls in love again – not sure if this story got resolved properly, but it might continue into the next book, I forget.

All in all, exactly what I needed in my current state – a quality book with intriguing mysteries and compelling characters. I’ve been lucky with my post-injury reads that most of them have had exactly that, with Black Orchids being the notable exception. Next up is one that I know I’ll enjoy and has a rather appropriate title…