The Lost Abbot

By Susanna Gregory

Published Jun 2013

In the summer of 1358 Matthew Bartholomew finds himself one of a party of Bishop’s Commissioners, sent north to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the Abbot of Peterborough. He and his colleagues quickly learn that behind the beautiful façade of the Benedictine monastery there is a vicious struggle for power, and that not everyone would be happy to see the prelate’s safe return.

This unrest and discontent seems to have spread throughout the town: a feisty rabble-rouse is encouraging the poor to rise up against their overlords, and there re bitter rivalries between competing shrines and the financial benefits of the relics they hold.

One of these shrines is dedicated to Lawrence do Oxforde, a robber and murderer, who was executed for his crimes but who has been venerated ever since miracles started occurring at his grave. It is here that a murder occurs, virtually in the presence of Bartholomew and his friend Brother Michael.

At first it seems impossible that this killing should be linked to the abbot’s disappearance, but further deaths make Bartholomew think again, and he begins to realise that the brittle tension between Church and laity, and between rich and poor, might be connected to the ever-increasing body count…