Maiden Bell (Thomas the Falconer) - Hardcover

Pilkington, John

4.44

845 ratings by Goodreads

9780727862938: Maiden Bell (Thomas the Falconer)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0727862936 ISBN 13: 9780727862938

Publisher: Severn House, 2005

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A Thomas the Falconer Mystery Summer 1593; plague rages in London, and the people of southern England watch anxiously as the infection spreads. Meanwhile in rural Berkshire, there is great excitement in the isolated village of Lambourn, where a family of itinerant bell-founders has arrived to forge a new church bell. But the peace of a warm summer's night is brutally shattered when one of the churchwardens ? a kindly old man without any enemies ? is found dead in the woods. Unease stalks the Downlands; ancient superstitions surface along with old hostilities, and Thomas the Falconer is charged by his master to restore order. But despite attempts to cover up the churchwarden's death, he soon realizes he seeks a murderer. In this, his fifth mystery, Thomas faces opposition from a fire-breathing Puritan minister as well as from ruthless landowners, before he finally uncovers the truth; which leads back almost four decades, to the burning of Protestant martyrs under Queen Mary?

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About the Author:

John Pilkington has written plays for radio and theatre as well as television scripts for the BBC. Born in Lancashire, he now lives in Devon.

From Publishers Weekly:

When bird-hunting "bat-fowlers" discover the battered body of saintly churchwarden Will Stubbs one night in Lambourn Wood, versatile falconer Thomas Finbow investigates in Pilkington's diverting fifth Elizabethan historical (after The Mapmaker's Daughter). A surfeit of characters slows the plot, but tension builds as Thomas, aided by parish clerk Jonas Crouch, uncovers links between several other missing locals and covetous landowner William Elyot, who is intent on enlarging his riverfront manor by any means. St. Michael's Church in Lambourn is a "place of strife" under stern vicar Richard Starling, while bell-founder Simon Goodchild and his eccentric family try to cast a new "maiden bell" for the parish amid the rivalries of church and town officials. As background to the town's many miseries, plague is ravaging England just as military commander Sir John Norris is raising an army to invade France at the behest of aging Queen Elizabeth. Twists at the end add a touch of pathos if not surprise. (Dec.)
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