An intense medieval murder mystery that takes a dark turn into primal survival instincts and the mind of the insane- it all starts in Framlingham, England in 1426.
In the small town of Framlingham, England in 1426, Edmond Zandor is awoken by the frantic cries of his child, only to discover his wife killed in cold blood only mere feet from where he slept, and eight of his nine children had mysteriously vanished. With nothing but his five-year-old son’s story to go off of, Edmond endeavors to catch the killer, find his children, and appease the violent lust for revenge brewing within him.
As Edmond tracks the assailant, he finds himself trapped inside the cryptic Framlingham castle with eleven others while a blizzard rages outside. Terror descends upon the group when they realize the nature of their situation, and when they discover that the same killer is among them.
Driven to the ends of the Earth to stay alive, Edmond must protect the lives of the innocents being killed off, while he desperately searches for his wife’s killer. But their numbers are dwindling, and the killer won’t hide forever. Can Edmond save the group and avenge his wife?
...Or will he die trying?
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Reviews for "A Spurious Hanging"
Reviewed by Michael Hartnett
3/22/2018
A Fine Murderous Mystery of Medieval Times
Put ten strong personalities with very particular motivations in an atmospheric castle with an ingenious murderer among them and see what happens. That is the wonderful hook of Dylan Devine’s A Spurious Hanging. Gathered by Sir Edmund Zander who is seeking to avenge his wife’s death, the group becomes increasingly fearful and ultimately paranoid as one character after another gets knocked off in varied and disarming manners. Devine does a fine job of shifting perspectives from one potential victim to the next as each tries to calculate both who is the murderer and how to stay out of harm’s way.
As more horrors befell characters, the shrewd and resourceful Constantine builds layers of suspense through his sordid machinations. Yet, Devine constantly keeps the reader off balance and guessing as mysteries in the spooky Framlingham Castle multiply. Set in 1426, A Spurious Hanging has a powerful elemental quality to it with a snow storm stranding the group in a castle running low on food, fire, and water.
As the population dwindles in the castle, the tension builds greater and greater until the reader is given a few last clever twists and turns right up to the novel’s satisfying climax. The Epilogue delivers gratifying clarifications that heretofore could not be explained but add further credibility to all that preceded it.
A Spurious Hanging is an engaging, bloody, historical suspense novel. I highly recommend it.
All Carson Reno Mystery Series Books are standalone novels. It is not necessary to read them in any particular order.
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