In the summer of 1138, war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud takes Brother Cadfael from his quiet garden into a battlefield of passions, deceptions, and death. Not far from the safety of the abbey walls, Shrewsbury Castle falls, leaving its ninety-four defenders loyal to the empress to hang as traitors. With a heavy heart, Brother Cadfael agrees to bury the dead, only to make a grisly discovery: ninety-five dead bodies lie in a row—the extra victim cruelly strangled, not hanged.
This ingenious way to dispose of a corpse tells Brother Cadfael that the killer is both clever and ruthless. He vows to find the truth behind disparate clues: a girl in boy's clothing, a missing treasure, and a single broken flower ... the tiny bit of evidence that Cadfael believes can most expose a murderer's black heart.
