[Owen Archer 09] • La Croce Degli Innocenti

It is winter in the year of our Lord 1372. A river pilot falls into the icy waters of the River Ouse during a skirmish between dockworkers and the boys of the minster school—among them Owen Archer’s adopted son Jasper.

But what began as a confrontation to return a boy’s stolen scrip becomes a murder investigation, as the rescuers find the pilot dying of wounds inflicted before his plunge into the river. When another body is fished from the water upstream, and Owen discovers that the boy Jasper sought to help has disappeared, he convinces the archbishop that he must go in search of the boy. His lost scrip seems to hold the key to the double tragedy, but his disappearance leaves troubling questions: did he flee in fear? Or was he abducted?

As Owen and Jasper head to the boy’s home in the countryside, they must untangle a case that will involve a valuable cross has gone missing, a devastating fire, and another drowning—and will find themselves endangered as the truth begins to emerge.