The Assize of the Dying

By: Ellis Peters

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Synopsis: A pair of gripping mystery novellas dealing with crime and punishment from the Edgar Award–winning author of the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael. In The Assize of the Dying, a defendant in an English courtroom is sentenced to death for a terrible slaying he insists he did not commit. Rising to his feet, Louis Stevenson places a medieval curse on the prosecutor, the judge, the jury foreman, and the actual killer—the four men responsible for his fate. Profoundly shaken by the condemned prisoner&’s words, a young couple looking on believes Stevenson&’s declaration of innocence. And their determination to uncover the truth only intensifies when two more deaths follow in quick succession. In Aunt Helen, the seemingly civilized residents of a stately English country house keep secrets about love, marriage, adulthood, and desire hidden behind closed doors—until the &“perfect murder&” threatens to expose them. Two chilling tales of murder and revenge in one volume from the Edgar, Agatha, and Gold Dagger Award–winning author of the Brother Cadfael historical mysteries, who &“writes with undiminished skill&” (The Times, London).