Holy Disorders. Edmund Crispin

      

      EDMUND CRISPIN

      Holy Disorders

       Ther saugh I first the derke ymaginyng

       Of felonye, and al the compassyng;

       The crueel ire, reed as any gleede;

       The pykepurs, and eke the pale drede;

       The smylere, with the knyfe under the cloke;

       The shepne, brennynge with the blake smoke;

       The tresoun of the mordrynge in the bedde;

       The open werre, with woundes al bibledde…

       The nayl y-driven in the shode a-nyght;

       The colde deeth, with mouth gapyng upright…’

      Chaucer

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      First published in Great Britain by

      Victor Gollancz 1946

      Copyright © Rights Limited,

      1946. All rights reserved

      Edmund Crispin has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

      Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017

      Cover image © Shutterstock.com

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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      Source ISBN: 9780008124182

      Ebook Edition © June 2015 ISBN: 9780008124199

      Version: 2017-10-26

      To my parents

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Chapter 1: Invitation and Warning

       Chapter 2: Do not Travel for Pleasure

       Chapter 3: Gibbering Corse

       Chapter 4: Teeth of Traps

      

       Chapter 5: Conjectures

      

       Chapter 6: Murder in the Cathedral

      

       Chapter 7: Motive

      

       Chapter 8: Two Canons

      

       Chapter 9: Three Suspects and a Witch

      

       Chapter 10: Night Thoughts

      

       Chapter 11: Whale and Coffin

      

       Chapter 12: Love’s Lute

      

       Chapter 13: Another Dead

      

       Chapter 14: In the Last Analysis

      

       Chapter 15: Reassurance and Farewell

      

       About the Author

      

       Also in this series

      

       About the Publisher

      

       Footnotes

       1

       Invitation and Warning

Continually at my bed’s head

A hearse doth hang, which doth me tell

That I ere morning may be dead…

SOUTHWELL

      As his taxi burrowed its way through the traffic outside Waterloo