Forty years ago, Exeter Cathedral close rang to the clamour of weapons, shouts of defiance and screams of pain. Afterwards, the bodies lying in their own blood bore silent witness to the conflicts that were tearing at the heart of the Cathedral itself.

Today, in 1323, more deaths have occurred. Is the first an accident? The second is surely murder, brutal and foul. Once again vicious slaying has polluted the Cathedral close, but this time the killer will not be so easy to capture and execute. The victim, Henry Potell, a wealthy saddler, was feared and hated – he held secrets that some were keen to keep hidden and others wanted to see him destroyed for his savage deeds all those years ago…

For Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace, and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock, the truth is increasingly mysterious. Who among Henry Potell’s companions could have wanted him dead? Was it someone whose ties to Potell are dark and sinister?

What first appears to be a matter of lust or greed soon grows much more troubling as Baldwin becomes aware of the disturbing and ominous Chapel of Bones, built long ago in reparation for a terrible murder…