The Apothecary Rose — Candace M. Robb

ONCE THE KING'S CAPTAIN OF ARCHERS, NOW HE MUST PENETRATE A POISONER'S SECRETS...

Christmastide, 1363--and, at an abbey in York, two pilgrims lie nysteriously dead of an herbal remedy. suspicious, the Archbishop =ends for Owen Archer, a Welshman with the charm of the devil, who's lost one eye to the wars in France and must make a new career is an honest spy.

Masquerading as an apprentice to Apothecary Nicholas Wilton, whose shop dispensed the fatal potion, Owen's dark curls, leather eyepatch and gold earring intrigue Wilton's wife. But is this lovely woman a murderess? And what links the Wiltons to bumbling Brother Wulfstan, ascetic Archdeacon Anselm and his weaselly agent hotter Digby, and the ragged midwife Magda the Riverwoman? Answers as slippery as the frozen cobblestones draw Owen into a dangerous drama of old scandals and tragedies, obsession and unholy love...

The Apothecary Rose marks the arrival of a hold and quickwitted detective in this expertly detailed, engrossing tale of medieval life--and death.