April, 1144. A body is found floating in Fladbury Mill leat, a man in green who has been stabbed but not robbed. The lord sheriff’s trio discover him to be an Evesham horse dealer, who has a beautiful young wife who ‘strays’. Did the wife or one of her lovers get rid of him? What is the connection with the lord of Harvington, who wed the man’s sister, and how did that lady meet her death? The trio have to work seamlessly together to unravel the thread that links seemingly disparate deaths before even more people die, and in the process keep Walkelin from the noose. 

August 1144. Osbern de Lench is known far and wide as a hard master whose temper is perpetually frayed. After his daily ride to survey his land, his horse returns to the hall riderless, and the lifeless body of the lord is found soon after. Was it the work of thieves or something closer to home? With an heir who is cast in the same hot-tempered mould, sworn enemies for neighbours and something amiss in the relationship between Osbern and his wife, Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, the wily Serjeant Catchpoll and apprentice Walkelin have suspects aplenty.

September 1143. Bradecote is a minor landowner and newly appointed under-sheriff. His sergeant, Catchpoll, is a weather-beaten, wily and experienced thief-taker who always looks to be one step ahead of any villain. Bradecote though quite new to the job brings an effectively analytical eye to the investigation. A series of fires around the city seem linked, and Bradecote and Catchpoll have to piece together the vengeful motive that links them in order to uncover the arsonist.

October 1143. A mysterious archer who kills cleanly and 'dissolves' into the forest, a missing train of pack mules on the salt road from Wich and a lord in the wrong place at the wrong time mean a crime the lord Sheriff of Worcestershire cannot ignore. Bradecote, Catchpoll and the eager Walkelin are hunting a killer and a gang and whoever is giving them orders. They are not helped by a reeve keen to keep his position, a lord with his own ends to serve and a distrusting and vengeful widow with a haunted past, to whom Bradecote is increasingly attracted.

July 1144. Ricolde, 'the finest whore in Worcester', is found butchered on an island a few miles up the River Severn. How did she get there, who killed her, and why? Uncovering details of her life and her past reveal a woman with hidden depths and hidden miseries which are fundamental to the answers, but time has cast a thick veil over the killer's identity. The lord sheriff's men have a trail that went cold over two decades ago, and evidence that contradicts itself. In a place Catchpoll knows inside out, he finds things new even to him, and then the case becomes personal.