Roger the Chapman returns to London town in the summer of 1475 for a few badly needed days of rest and entertainment after a busy spring spent peddling wares - and solving two murders - along England's southern coast. But, as is often the case for Kate Sedley's popular monk-turned-peddler and amateur sleuth, the hand of Fate interrupts Roger's plans with another case of murder and betrayal that demands his immediate attention. King Edward IV is making his troops ready to invade France with a great show of strength, and though rumors abound that the king is reluctant, London is teeming with the energy of the march. But as the campaign approaches, a spy infiltrates the Duke of Gloucester's household - the duke is one of King Edward IV's two brothers - and narrowly escapes exposure by killing the only man who can identify him. All information indicates that the spy is the tool of a conspiracy to assassinate the duke before the king's invasion. Motive and method, no one knows - only that the duke's death is promised by the eve of Saint Hyacinth. It is an uneasy time between France and England, and between the king and his brothers, who disagree on England's goals with France. Roger, who proved his loyalty to Gloucester in a case a few years ago, is the only one the duke trusts to uncover the traitor and the powers behind him. Another treat from Sedley for the historical fiction lover. Medieval peddler and sometime sleuth Roger the Chapman must expose a killer spy who has wormed his way into the Duke of Gloucester's household. Fine work. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. As England prepares for war with France, the duke of Gloucester, the devoted brother of King Edward IV, is targeted for death. Once again, Roger the Chapman, an itinerant peddler with extraordinary powers of deduction, must come to the aid of the duke. In order to ferret out the traitor, Roger goes undercover as a servant in the royal household. When a probable informant is brutally murdered, Roger works feverishly to unravel the plot and expose the mastermind before the fateful Eve of St. Hyacinth. An artfully crafted caper in an authentically realized medieval setting. Margaret Flanagan Itinerant peddlar Roger the Chapman, now in his 70's, is recalling events of 50 years before, in 1475, when, for the third time (The Plymouth Cloak, 1993, etc.), he's called (by God, he's convinced) to use his detecting skills in the service of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, brother of King Edward. The road had led from Chilworth Manor in Southhampton, home of Sir Cedric and Lady Wardroper and their young son Matthew--just accepted into Duke Richard's household--to London, where the Duke awaits departure for yet another onslaught on France in his Majesty's service. But Roger has accidentally found the corpse of spy Thaddeus Morgan and uncovered what appears to be a conspiracy on the life of Duke Richard, to take place before the Eve of Saint Hyacinth. Roger joins Richard's court at Baynard's Castle in London, acquaints himself with Matthew Wardroper, Richard Boyse, Lionel Arrowsmith, Timothy Plummer, and others serving the Duke, ever trying to seek out the untrustworthy, as various attempts on the Duke's life fail. Not until Richard's court and its soldiers, along with those of King Edward and George, the Duke of Clarence, arrive in Calais, prepared for a siege that never happens, are perpetrator and motive revealed--not a moment too soon for the benumbed reader. A wearying chronicle of coincidences, whispered conversations, shadowy figures, and endless chewing over of possibilities--though it may be lightened for some by its scholarly, behind-the-scenes look at the domestic details of a royal court. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.