Dark Serpent (Hugh Corbett Mysteries, Book 18): A gripping medieval murder mystery

This eighteenth story of Hugh Corbett & his companions is without a shadow of doubt the most boring & repetitive of his adventures. A very lazyilyscraped together yarn that only serves to denigrate a previously enjoyable series of stories. This is a tale that could have been fleshed out over a hundred pages & would have still been too long, it continually tells, what is basically the same story to various different characters, over four hundred pages. I feel that the author has done his main character a great disservice in making him appear as thick as two short planks in his discovering of the villain in the last few pages, when it was totally obvious by page forty. Yet still Hugh ploughed on interminably with all of the people who appeared only to disappear in a welter of blood, which he always seemingly managed to miraculously escape from. The author also managed to discover a new word, you will not miss it, which he threw in on almost every other page whether it was part of the story or not. All in all a very disappointing waste of Doherty`s talent & my money.

This thrilling book is the 18th volume of the delightful and exciting "Medieval Hugh Corbett" series by Paul Doherty.From all his other series and stand alone books, this series as well as the Brother Athelstan series are my favourite ones by this wonderful author.At the beginning of the book you'll find a wonderful character list of people who're all featuring within this gripping tale as wellas a short historical note, while at the end you'll find a very well described author's note.Story-telling is as ever of a superb quality, especially with this series because this is also the author's speciality, on the one hand the atmosphere of these medieval times comes splendidly off the pages while on the other hand all the characters, whether real or fictional, come vividly to life within this very fine exciting tale.The time has moved on within this series from the year AD 1304 and the reign of King Edward I towards the year of AD 1311 and we find ourselves now in the reign of King Edward II and Queen Isabella of France.The story itself is about Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the Secret Seal, after being summoned to meet the King in Westminster Abbey, that he learns about gruesome deaths (murders) at the St Giles Lazar hospital in London, and that one of it victims is the Templar Ralph Grandison who's killed by a dagger thrust through his heart, which was one of the items stolen as the Crown Jewels some 8 years before, while other Templars are also slaughtered at that hospital as well.While Hugh Corbett and the fearsome Ranulf-Atte-Newgate, who's Clerk of the Green Wax, dig deeper into this path of treachery and deceit, and thus trying hard to find the assassin of these murders, that they will finally encounter extreme danger from a sinister old arch enemy in this struggle of life and death.Very much recommended, for this is the author Paul Doherty and his creation Hugh Corbett at their very best and "As Lethal As A Viper"!

Extremely good - I have just finished reading it. I like all the Hugh Corbett medieval mysteries by /docherty. I believe 20 have been written so far, and I have read about 15 of them - I shall be most upset when I have read them all! I hope he writes more.Corbett is a Medieval "Colombo" and ALWAYS "gets his man" and as with Colombo, often refers to his wife, although we never see her! Unlike Colombo, he is extremely fastidious - no dirty raincoats! Some of the plots can be quite gruesome too - and not for the faint hearted. He has an assistant called Ranulph, who supplies light relief during times of extreme danger and peril.

Mr Doherty's obvious dislike, I won't put it more strongly, of the Knights Templer makes my enjoyment of this medieval mystery somewhat limited. This is my first book by this author and I have three more in my library and I hope that what I consider his bigotry will not be in any future reading. I am a medieval/dark ages aholic both in fiction and non-fiction. I will leave it for others to judge my comments.

Paul Docherty has a remarkable gift for story telling- just when you think you know who the killer is it turns out to be someone else. In this case someone who you think is dead but isn't. A great read!

I read some of these books when they were first published and loved them but somehow lost track of them. It is therefore a great pleasure to read the previous ones again and continue right on up to date.

I have just read this again. This is one of the better ones, it has story and pace and never runs on too long. Most satisfactory.

A Paul Doherty typically good novel. He doesn't disappoint. A can't put it down story that keeps you guessing to the end