Thursday, March 22, 2018

The Study of Murder and The Death of a Falcon

Please join me in congratulating Susan McDuffie on the publication of The Death of a Falcon and the re-release of The Study of Murder! I had the pleasure of working with Susan to design the covers. Here are the book descriptions:



Oxford, 1374: At the command of the Lord of the Isles, Muirteach and his wife Mariota accompany Donald, the lord’s surly thirteen-year-old son, to Oxford. Shortly after their arrival a winsome tavern maid disappears. Muirteach attempts to help Undersheriff Grymbaud with the investigation, as well as keep Donald at his studies and out of the taverns. He has little success with either venture. Mariota thirsts to attend medical lectures at the schools and seeks a way to gain admittance to these classes. 

An Oxford master is brutally bludgeoned to death, and Grymbaud asks Muirteach to investigate the slaying. The arrest of an aged servant for the murder stirs the ever-simmering discord between townsfolk and university students. Then Mariota vanishes. 

Gleaning clues from a cryptic manuscript and desperate to save his wife, a determined Muirteach tracks a wily killer through a dark and twisted labyrinth of deceit.


Scotland, 1375: Muirteach MacPhee and his wife Mariota visit Edinburgh Castle, assisting the Lord of the Isles in his negotiations with King Robert II. A trading vessel arrives at the nearby port of Leith from the far away Norse settlement in Greenland. The ship brings unexpected diversion and carries coveted wares: gyrfalcons, unicorn’s horns, and fine furs. Both King Robert and the Lord of the Isles desire the rare birds, easily worth a king’s ransom.

Muirteach and Mariota, unaccustomed to the sophistication of castle life, initially find pleasure in the heady and flirtatious glamor of the royal court. Then sudden and unexpected cruelty, followed by the senseless death of a beautiful young girl, plunge the couple into a murky sea of alliances and intrigue that stretches from Scotland across the icy western ocean to the far northern lands of the Norse, leaving trails of treachery and murder in its wake.

A Study of Murder and The Death of a Falcon are available in ebook and print formats on Amazon. Add them to your shelves on Goodreads, and check out Susan's website for the scoop on all of her books.

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jennyq@historicaleditorial.com