Ritual Murder

In the glorious cathedral of Angleby in Norfolk, England, a choirboy lies dead: not only murdered, but horribly mutilated. If the old, monkish chronicles are to be believed, his wounds are identical to those inflicted on a child venerated in the Middle Ages as Little St. Ulf. Ulf's death, in 1144, which was followed by a massacre of the local Jewish population, gave rise to the infamous accusation of ritual murder that brought so much suffering and death to the Jews of medieval Europe. Everyone declares that the murdered child, the sweetest singer in the cathedral choir, was a very quiet boy. So how did he come to such a dreadful end?

Detective-Inspector Benjamin Jurnet, in charge of the case, fears that if the killer is not found quickly, anti-Jewish feeling may surface again in Angleby as news of the mutilation spreads---indeed, it is not long before it becomes apparent that the ghost of the ancient lie has still not been laid to rest. But is the detective looking for a rabid anti-Semite or a child-molester?

Jurnet himself, who is in the process of converting to Judaism in order to marry his lover, Miriam, is personally as well as professionally involved. As he sets out to discover the truth, he finds the search entangled with the urgent preoccupations of his private life, and of the lives of many others in the apparently sleepy cathedral town.

And then a second choirboy disappears...

This is #2 in a Benjamin Jurnet Mystery.