BROTHER Cadfael this is not, although the main character is a monk. Brother Petroc is very different from the God-fearing Cadfael and his story is a high-speed thriller. High speed on horseback and in sailing boat that is.

Vaughan-Hughes gives you a warts-and-all version of Medieval England which reels from location to location, like Friar Tuck on a night out.

There is a sinister Knight Templar, murders, a sacred relic, pigs and dung hills as Brother Petroc tries to work out why he was chosen to be framed for the theft of the relic and a murder.

A book for the beach or a long-distance flight.