Prince Edward's Ride(2024)

Jason Vail

Stephen Attebrook, coroner and finder extraordinaire of the small town of Ludlow in the Welsh Marches, hopes for a peaceful spring after years of turmoil and loss. But the conflict between King Henry III and the rebellious barons led by his brother-in-law Simon de Montfort is reaching its final crisis.

It begins when Montfort marches a small army to Hereford in the Welsh Marches, with King Henry and Prince Edward as prisoners in tow, in order to coerce one of his powerful supporters back into the barons’ fold.

In Hereford, Prince Edward’s chamberlain is found dead in very peculiar circumstances — apparently drowned in a trough outside a house of ill-repute in Grope Lane, a shady part of town. The verdict is accidental death, but Edward thinks otherwise.

However, Edward has other things on his mind than the death of a close servant. He is scheming to escape his imprisonment and to foment a rising against Montfort’s rule by the Marcher barons still loyal to the king.

He needs an agent to help bring about that rising, and he summons Stephen to be that man on the pretext of conducting an independent investigation into the chamberlain’s death.

This summons launches Stephen into life-threatening secret work. And if he fails, Edward’s plan to restore the king to power will fail.

Yet the compulsion to find justice for those who cannot find it for themselves could ruin Edward’s carefully crafted plans.