The Bear Wagon — Jason Vail

A dead girl is found floating in the River Teme at one of medieval Ludlow's mills, drowned under mysterious circumstances that only the most addle-witted could think was anything but murder.Yet Stephen Attebrook, an impoverished knight and sometime deputy coroner, can spare no time to investigate this crime. He and his friend Gilbert Wistwode must pursue a more immediate threat -- unknown ruffians traveling under the guise of bear baiters have kidnapped Stephen's niece, Ida, his estranged brother William's daughter, along with other young women across England. Set against the backdrop of war brewing between King Henry III and rebellious barons arrayed about Simon de Montfort, a desperate chase of the bear wagon across England unfolds, reaching to the depths of London itself and far into Norfolk, as Stephen races to find Ida before she meets a fate worse than murder. The Bear Wagon is Stephen's most complex and dangerous adventure yet.