Book review - "The Crown in Darkness" by P. C. Doherty

The Crown in Darkness is a satisfying follow-up to P.C. Doherty’s first Hugh Corbett novel, Satan in St. Mary’s.  Where the first one was more of intrigue and action, the second was whodunit and action.  In The Crown in Darkness, Corbett is sent by the Royal Chancellor Robert Burrell to the Scottish capitol Edinburgh.  The Scottish king Alexander III has just died under mysterious circumstances and Burrell wants to know what exactly happened.  Was the king murdered or did he die in an unfortunate accident?  With Alexander dead and no heir, the throne appears to be up for grabs and powerful families are beginning to jockey for position.

Corbett is sent to find out what will all of this mean for England and King Edward I.  He starts asking questions as soon as he arrives and subsequently, attempts are made to kill him.  In the previous novel, Doherty gives Corbett a sensitivity and vulnerability by falling in love with a femme fatale, but there is no such depth in this one. 

Corbett is all business and realizes there is more to his mission than Burrell has let on. 

I enjoyed this story much more than the first one, but the formatting in my hardback version of The Crown in Darkness was non-existent.  Usually, there is a new paragraph each time the speaker changes but in this version, the publishers or whoever did not believe in hitting the ’return’ button.  I had to re-read many passages to realize who was talking.

The story was great but the formatting took away from the enjoyment. 

Book review - "Satan in St. Mary's" by P. C. Doherty

I decided to read P.C. Doherty’s medieval mystery series featuring Hugh Corbett, starting with the first novel, Satan in St. Mary’s, and read almost all of it on a plane ride.  I enjoyed the story but it does address some disturbing topics.

Hugh Corbett is a clerk in the employee of King Edward I, in the mid-thirteen hundreds.  Some thirty years prior to the story, Edward I had to battle Robert de Montfort for the crown and eventually won.  

De Montfort was hacked to death.  Apparently, de Montfort was a devil-worshipper and was a member of a large group of such vile people.  Despite de Montfort’s death, his fellows carry on their religion and plot the assassination of Edward I.

The Royal Chancellor assigns clerk Hugh Corbett to look into the suicide of the Chancellor’s spy.  Corbett quickly discovers the man was murdered and sets out to find the people responsible.  During his investigation,, he becomes the target of the devil-worshippers and falls for a beautiful woman, known to be very dangerous.  That part of the story is rather predictable.

Although the final solution is not a big surprise, the story is exciting and a fast read.  Doherty gives Hugh intelligence and tenacity, but also a soft side.