Nine hundred years ago Hildegard of Bingen, a seer of medieval Germany, and her young scribe, Volmar, promised a dead monk eternal rest in consecrated ground. Their humble pledge to seek justice for a decade-old murder plunges the two unlikeliest of amateur sleuths into a sinister plot of shameless greed. The plot begins to unravel as two knights of the secret crusading order of Hospitallers, come to the monastery at Disibodenberg on the trail of a mysterious gentleman who possesses one of Christendom's holiest relics. When the sublime peace of the monastery is shattered and cries of suicide follow the ringing bells of Matins, Hildegard and Volmar strengthen their resolve to stop Death's stroll through Disibodenberg. By merging their natural intelligence, curiosity and logic, these two ask the questions that illuminate the hypocrisy of this dark era and in doing so, enlighten the reader about our own uncertain times and the stench which greed leaves behind.




"The author strews her tale with generous measures of intrigue, sudden violence, poison, evidence to decipher, secrets waiting to be revealed, specters either holy (in Hildegard's case) or otherwise and figures and incidents drawn from history . . . A sturdy kickoff with a distinctly different duo of detectives." Kirkus Reviews