Crowner John

Crowner John Mystery are series of books written by Bernard Knight. This series gives an account of the fictional life of Sir John He was a former knight in the army of crusaders who got appointed as a Keeper of Pleas of the Kings Crown for Devon County. Crowners were appointed in the 12th century in every county to check the corruption of sheriffs. They were also responsible in raising money to make loan payments that covered the capture of king’s ransom in Austria during the 3rd Crusade. Sir John was kept in charge of investigating all sudden deaths, rapes, murders, wrecks, fires, catches of royal fish, wrecks as well as collecting custom form rich criminals. Sir John is given a very large area to investigate. He is given an area which is supposed to be administered by three Crowners. However, he is assisted by Thomas de Payne, a priest and a clerk and Gwyn, his old Cornish retainer. John is also married to sheriff Exeter`s sister, Matilda, a social-climbing wife. Sir Richard de Revelle who is supposed to be John’s good brother in law makes his life even harder. But John seeks solace to Nesta, a Welsh mistress and a landlady of the Bush inn. Apart from John many characters in the book series existed in history. The author has done a deep research on the characters and the surroundings in order to come up with 15 good novels. The main character, John is a rude, abrupt and steamy fellow. The main character is well suited to the time and era where people were not that liberal and women were being treated baldy. The story line and characters are very impressive.