A historic Scots murder mystery

DARK HUNTER F.J. Watson

(Polygon, £8.99)

Having distinguished herself as a medieval historian, and biographer of Robert Bruce, the Perthshire-based F.J. Watson has channelled her historical knowledge into a murder mystery, set in the period she knows best. Dark Hunter takes place in 1317, at the point when the Scots are once more gaining ground after the hammering they received from Edward I.

Led by Bruce’s son, Black Douglas, the Scots are marauding in the Borders just as Sir Edmund Darel, his squire Will and 20-yearold trainee squire

Benedict Russell arrive at Berwick-upon-Tweed.

“We’re here to strike at the accursed Scots before they drive us into the sea,” blusters Will, but without an army to back them up there isn’t a lot they can do, and the soldiers in the Berwick garrison must wait for word that the king is sending an army north. With each passing day, that seems less likely and everyone is feeling vulnerable and on edge.

Yorkshire lad Benedict never anticipated soldiering as a career path. He was supposed to be a clerk, and studied under monks at Gloucester Abbey. The death of his brother, however, has meant that Benedict is instead learning how to be a squire under Sir Edmund, who is pretty contemptuous of his lack of practical ability and his fondness for book-learning.

All this changes in Berwickupon-Tweed, where Benedict, who is good with numbers, works out that the chamberlain is overcharging the soldiers, an offence serious enough to send a report to the King. So, when the murdered body of young Alice Rydale is found outside the town’s walls, Benedict is entrusted with the task of finding the culprit.

“I think the world has gone completely mad,” he says, and in a town with no shortage of knights and burgesses, it does seem strange that a murder investigation should be entrusted to a lowly trainee squire still some months short of his 21st birthday. He finds it difficult to exert any authority, particularly against Ralph Holme, Berwick’s richest merchant and former mayor, a “coarse and cruel” man who may have been in on the crime. The stakes increase when it looks as though there’s not only a murderer in their midst, but that he might be also a traitor who plans to open the town gates and let the Scots in when no one’s looking.

Given the urgency of the situation, it feels strange that Benedict should periodically grow weary of investigating and drop it for a while, seemingly to allow events in the outside world

(letters flying back and forth to London, the progress of ships and papal negotiations) to catch up before the inevitable siege. The hunt takes up most of a year, and both Benedict and those who have entrusted him with the task seem inexplicably relaxed about getting results. Similarly, Benedict’s romance with his love interest, Alice Rydale’s sister, Lucy, takes an age to get going. More convincing and engaging is Benedict’s sense of responsibility for the gruesome and regrettable consequences of his investigation which prevent him being too smug about his sleuthing skills.

Set 10 years before the granddaddy of all medieval murder mysteries, The Name of the Rose, it’s impossible not to notice echoes of the earlier book. Benedict isn’t a monk, of course, but he’s an inexperienced youth plucked from a sheltered abbey and dropped into an intimidating stronghold with a murder to solve, a cipher to decode and his untested feelings about the opposite sex to grapple with. Fortunately, as in Umberto Eco’s classic, a lifetime of extensive research has resulted in the firm grasp of period detail that makes Dark Hunter an immersive and entertaining read.