The Tainted Relic — Simon Beaufort

In 1100, an English knight named was entrusted with a precious religious relic -- a piece of the True Cross, allegedly stained with the blood of Christ. The relic is said to curse anyone who touches with a gruesome end as soon as it leaves their possession. Several decades pass, and the Cross turns up in the possession of a dealer who is robbed and murdered en route to Glastonbury. Investigating the death, Bernard Knight's protagonist, Crowner John, learns of the relic's dark history. In 1269, the discovery of a decapitated monk leads Ian Morson's academic sleuth William Falconer to uncover a link to the relic, and in 1323, Michael Jecks' Sir Baldwin Furnshill has reason to suspect the relic's involvement in at least five violent deaths. Finally, the relic is dispatched to London, where it falls into the hands of an unscrupulous book dealer -- and where Philip Gooden's Nick Revill will determine its ultimate fate.