Book excerpt: Coroner Sir John investigates the murder of a man with too many enemies to count in this pacey, twisty instalment in the Crowner John medieval mystery series, set in twelfth-century England. Exeter, 1195. High-spirited young knights, drunken squires, pickpockets and horse thieves are pouring into the city for an exciting one-day jousting tournament. Not even a serious altercation between Sir Hugo Peverel, a manor lord from nearby Tiverton, and a mysterious Frenchman, Reginald de Charterai, can spoil the fun. Two days later, however, Sir Hugo’s body is found in a barn, stabbed in the back. De Charterai seems the obvious culprit, but the county coroner, Sir John de Wolfe, soon discovers there’s no shortage of people who wished the almost universally hated Hugo dead. All three of his brothers have a motive: two for his title, and one for Hugo’s attractive young wife, Beatrice. Mistreated Beatrice had good reason herself to despatch her cheating husband – as did several prominent villagers whose lives Hugo ruined. With so many suspects to choose from, Sir John is confronted with one of the most difficult cases of his distinguished career.