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The Silence of Stones by Jeri Westerson6/29/2023 ![]() ![]() In the eighth installment, Crispin awakens after a night of debauchery in a bed he doesn't recognize. And this series is very much in the hard-boiled tradition, even if it is set seven centuries in the past. Crispin Guest, a former knight (he was expelled from the brotherhood for his alleged part in a conspiracy against King Richard II), is what we would call in modern parlance a private eye. ![]() Agent: Joshua Bilmes, Jabberwocky Literary. Several unlikely plot developments and superficial characterizations make this one of the weaker entries in the series. Afraid that he will be charged with her murder, Crispin flees so that he might catch the culprit, but he's soon in custody, leaving his teenage apprentice, Jack Tucker, to work the case. The next morning, Crispin discovers Elizabeth has been strangled. Ignoring his warnings, she plies him with more drink, and the two fall into bed together. Crispin uses the instructions on the parchment inside the pouch to locate the target, Elizabeth le Porter, who recognizes him as a heroic former knight. When a stranger shoves a bulging money pouch at Crispin, telling him that a woman must be dead that very night, he realizes that he's been mistaken for a hired killer. Westerson's lackluster ninth medieval noir (after 2015's The Silence of Stones) finds investigator Crispin Guest in his favorite London tavern, the Boar's Tusk, feeling the effects of drinking too much wine. ![]()
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