The Chronicles of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon are a series of fictional medieval mysteries written by Mel Starr. The first, published in 2008 by Monarch Books, is The Unquiet Bones.[1] The second, published in 2009, is A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel.[2] The third, published in 2010, is A Trail of Ink.[3] The fourth, published in 2011, is Unhallowed Ground.[4] The fifth, sixth & seventh in the series are The Tainted Coin, Rest Not in Peace and The Abbot's Agreement.
Subsequent books in the series include Ashes to Ashes, Lucifer's Harvest,Deeds of Darkness, Prince Edward's Warrant, Without a Trace, The Easter Sepulchre, and Master Wycliffe’s Summons.[5]
Plot
Hugh de Singleton is a newly practicing surgeon in medieval Oxford, England when he comes to the aid of a local lord who is injured.[6]
The Lord hires him to come to his manor of Bampton, and subsequently to be his Bailiff at Bampton Castle (which was an existing castle in the 1360s). In his dual role as surgeon and bailiff Hugh is called upon to solve a series of mysterious murders and other crimes, which make up the plots of the various books.
Hugh is also in search of a wife, which imparts a nice romantic subplot to the beginning of the series; he later marries and fathers two daughters and one son. A minor character is Master John Wycliffe, who is Hugh's mentor, and was a real person, famous for his translation of the Bible in to common English, and for his arguments with the church hierarchy. The characters of several of the Bampton citizens are also based on real historical people, as the author explains in his book notes.[7]
Author
Melvin R. Starr was raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, earned his MA in history from Western Michigan University and taught history in Michigan for thirty-nine years. At retirement, he was chairman of the social studies department of Portage Northern High School. Starr had studied both medieval medicine and medieval English.[8]
Notes
↑ Starr, Mel (2008). The Unquiet Bones: The First Chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon. Monarch Books. ISBN978-0825462900.
↑ Starr, Melvin R. (2009). A Corpse at St Andrew's Chapel: The Second Chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon. Monarch. ISBN978-1854249548.
↑ Starr, Melvin R. (2010). A Trail of Ink: The Third Chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon. ISBN978-1854249746.
Jan Hus, sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as Iohannes Hus or Johannes Huss, was a Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and the inspiration of Hussitism, a key predecessor to Protestantism, and a seminal figure in the Bohemian Reformation. Hus is considered to be the first Church reformer, even though some designate the theorist John Wycliffe. His teachings had a strong influence, most immediately in the approval of a reformed Bohemian religious denomination and, over a century later, on Martin Luther.
John Wycliffe was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of Oxford. He became an influential dissident within the Catholic priesthood during the 14th century and is considered an important predecessor to Protestantism. Wycliffe questioned the privileged status of the clergy, who had bolstered their powerful role in England, and advocated radical poverty of the clergy.
Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that was active in England from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic theologian who was dismissed from the University of Oxford in 1381 for criticism of the Roman Catholic Church. The Lollards' demands were primarily for reform of Western Christianity. They formulated their beliefs in the Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards.
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"The Unquiet Dead" is the third episode of the first series of the British science-fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on 9 April 2005 on BBC One. It was written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Euros Lyn.
Melvin John Ramos was an American figurative painter, specializing most often in paintings of female nudes, whose work incorporates elements of realist and abstract art.
William I of Champlitte (1160s-1209) was a French knight who joined the Fourth Crusade and became the first prince of Achaea (1205–1209).
Bampton, also called Bampton-in-the-Bush, is a settlement and civil parish in the Thames Valley about 4+1⁄2 miles (7 km) southwest of Witney in Oxfordshire. The parish includes the hamlet of Weald. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,564. Bampton is variously referred to as both a town and a village. The Domesday Book recorded that it was a market town by 1086. It continued as such until the 1890s. It has both a town hall and a village hall.
Mos Teutonicus was a postmortem funerary custom used in Europe in the Middle Ages as a means of transporting, and solemnly disposing of, the bodies of high-status individuals. Nobles would often undergo Mos Teutonicus since their burial plots were often located far away from their place of death. The process involved the removal of the flesh from the body, so that the bones of the deceased could be transported hygienically from distant lands back home.
Bampton Castle was in the village of Bampton, Oxfordshire.
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Vivian Hunter Galbraith was an English historian, fellow of the British Academy and Oxford Regius Professor of Modern History.
"Sir Hugh", also known as "The Jew's Daughter" or "The Jew's Garden", is a traditional British folk song, Child ballad No. 155, Roud No. 73, a folkloric example of a blood libel. The original texts are not preserved, but the versions written down from the 18th century onwards show a clear relationship with the 1255 accusations of the murder of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln by Jews in Lincoln, making it likely that the known versions derive from compositions made around that time.
The Cadfael Chronicles is a series of historical murder mysteries written by the linguist-scholar Edith Pargeter (1913–1995) under the name "Ellis Peters". Set in the 12th century in England during the Anarchy, the novels focus on a Welsh Benedictine monk, Cadfael, who aids the law by investigating and solving murders.
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Cadfael is a British mystery television series, broadcast on ITV between 29 May 1994 and 28 December 1998, based on The Cadfael Chronicles novels written by Ellis Peters. Produced by Central, it starred Derek Jacobi as the medieval detective and title character, Brother Cadfael. The complete series was released on DVD on 24 August 2009. The series aired in the United States as part of the Mystery! series.
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