Listening to The Tinner's Corpse by Bernard Knight

Now that we've established that I like books on tape (and books on disk), and that I tend to select mystery novels for my easy listening pleasure, I might as well mention another novel I heard recently: The Tinner's Corpse, by Bernard Knight (no relation).

This falls into the class or sub-genre of the medieval mystery, a cult spawned by Ellis Peters and her admittedly excellent Brother Cadfael novels. (I've read them all, I think I own them all, and I've even seen Derek Jacoby's take on Brother Cadfael on PBS.) While the Cadfael novels took place in the 1140s (the first was set in 1139, as I recall) and in the neighborhood of Shrewsbury, Bernard Knight's Crowner John novels are set later and further south. 1195 it is, and the office of coroner, or "crowner," is a new one, created by King Richard's bureaucrats to extend royal power into the jurisdiction of the county sheriffs.

I read one of the early books in this series. It might have been the first, Sanctuary Seeker (1998). The Tinner's Corpse (2001) is the fifth of the Crowner John mysteries. There are now 13 of them out there, with a 14th due in 2010.

Sir John de Wolfe is the coroner for Exeter and its county, and the former Crusader is King Richard's man through and through. This leads to conflicts with his brother-in-law, the country Sheriff, which is one of the many occasions for trouble with his wife. So Sir John spends a lot of time out of the house, chasing skirts, drinking ale by the quart, and solving murders. One might note that it is not the coroner's job to solve murders, but merely to assemble a jury to determine causes of death. If the death is by foul play, the matter is supposed to be handed over to the sheriff. John de Wolfe, though, doesn't trust his brother-in-law, so he tends to hang onto these cases until they are solved. Sir John is aided by his henchman, Gwyn, and his clerk, the unfrocked priest Thomas.

The most interesting aspect of The Tinner's Corpse is the anthropology. Knight describes the society of the tinners, whose ore was so precious that they had their own law and court system, except for capital cases. After many, many description of the peasant farmers on their little holdings, it is refreshing to explore a different facet of medieval society. In fact, it is refreshing to be reminded that there were different facets to medieval society. In the course of his work, Sir John meets all sorts of people, and this gives Bernard Knight occasion for a lot of social commentary. Thankfully, Knight pretty much sticks to the facts and reasonable suppositions, and doesn't spend a lot of time bemoaning the plight of women in medieval English society.

The mystery itself is pretty standard. A tin worker is killed, in what seems to be an attack on his master's prominent position in the industry. Another leading tin master is suspected. Other suspects are raised and then dismissed, and Crowner John closes in on the culprit. It is, as I say, what this journey in search of the guilty party shows about the people among whom Crowner John lives that makes the book worth reading. Or, in this case, worth listening to.

The Tinner's Corpse is on eight cassettes.