[Gil Cunningham 01] • The Harper's Quine

“McIntosh's characterizations and period detail are first rate and bode well for future entries in this series.”—Publishers Weekly

“The next Cunningham adventure is to be welcomed.”—Historical Novels Review

Novice lawyer Gil Cunningham finds his true vocation not as a priest but as an investigator.

This meticulously researched historical mystery is the debut of a medieval Scottish investigator. Gil Cunningham is a recently qualified lawyer whose family expects him to enter the priesthood. At the May Day dancing at Glasgow Cross, Gil notices an attractive woman who is subsequently murdered. When he finds the body of the woman in the new building under construction at Glasgow Cathedral, he is asked to investigate. The corpse was the runaway wife of cruel, unpleasant nobleman John Semphill. She had left him to live with a blind harper whom she bore an infant son. With the help of Maistre Pierre, the French master mason whose lovely daughter has captured his heart, Gil identifies a callous multiple murderer that no one would have suspected.

Born and brought up in Lanarkshire, Pat McIntosh lived and worked in Glasgow for many years before settling on the West Coast. The Harper’s Quine is the first in the Gil Cunningham medieval mystery series.

From Publishers WeeklyLovers of quality historicals will welcome McIntosh's debut, a convincing whodunit set in 15th-century Glasgow. Lawyer Gilbert Cunningham, a progressive and empathic young man, is letting entropy propel him toward a life in the priesthood. His natural intelligence, curiosity and logic serve him in good stead when he stumbles across the corpse of a young woman on the grounds of a cathedral. The victim proves to be the estranged wife of a nobleman who had left him for a harper. Assisted by the forward and independent daughter of a local mason, Cunningham carefully examines forensic clues as well as the mysteries of the human heart to uncover the twisted soul responsible for a number of deaths. Impressively, the author manages to avoid false or anachronistic notes in depicting Scottish life in 1492. While some historical references will be obscure to an American audience, they don't detract from a clever plot, littered with fair clues to the puzzles. The rough justice that befalls the villain is a little contrived, but there's every reason for the legions of fans of the late Ellis Peters to anticipate the next Cunningham mystery. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review"'McIntosh's characterisations and period detail are first rate and bode well for future entries in this series.' Publishers Weekly 'The next Cunningham adventure is to be welcomed.' Historical Novels Review"