In the 1440s, Sherborne has become a place verging on civil disobedience echoing the unrest felt in other parts of the land under the young King Henry VI. Against this backdrop the Abbot of Sherborne has a serious problem which could undermine the very fabric of the Abbey. He turns reluctantly to the Coroner, Sir Tobias and the schoolmaster Matthias Barton of Milborne Port to solve this. Dislike of the Abbot grows, but who is the stranger seeking a child adopted by a local seamstress some ...

A stranger in Sherborne fleeing justice from murder in another town causes a young apprentice working on the Abbey misericords serious injury. When young Luke, stepson to Matthias Barton, becomes involved with the felon an unhappy rift is revealed in the Barton household. _x000D_ The disappearance of Luke causes Matthias to leave the school in the hands of his wife and Martin Cooper, as he and Ezekiel Jacobson attempt to find Luke before he meets an unpleasant fate. _x000D_Their trail take...

Sherborne in 1436 was a quarrelsome town, the townspeople and the Abbot at loggerheads over the narrowing of the entrance to Allhallows, the chapel-of-ease attached to the Abbey, and the positioning of a font in the same chapel. Against this background, a young man is found murdered in the Lady Chapel of the Abbey, and subsequent strange deaths occur. Matthias Barton feels compelled to investigate and being unused to murder, stumbles along until suddenly things become clearer to him. Will ...

When an injured man appears at the home of Sir Tobias, Coroner of Dorset, claiming to have devastating news of his son-in-law, he is compelled to investigate for the sake of his daughter and grandson. Matthias Barton is drawn into the investigation and travels to Calais to seek answers. Here he and William, squire to Sir Tobias,discovers a sinister organisation designed to weaken the English soldiers in their failing battle against the French. Meanwhile in Sherborne, the unrest grows stron...

The building of the Alms house in Sherborne has taken the good people of Sherborne into much thought and energetic fund raising, despite still owing the Abbot money for rebuilding after the fire. Against this backdrop, Shaftesbury Abbey becomes embroiled in a gruesome happening which involves A Sherborne family close to the young schoolmaster, Matthias Barton. With eighteen miles of hard riding between the two towns, how can this be resolved?

The year is 1450. Matthias Barton's school is well established, Luke his step son is at the great schools of learning in Oxford, but there is serious unrest in the country and the Sherborne area is affected by this. Finn, a one-time pupil of Matthias has disappeared, anxious to find the Kentish rebels and join with them in their fight against the injustices as he sees them. Meanwhile in Sherborne, the civil disobedience against the Abbot and the Bishop of Salisbury continues. Matthias is i...