He tries to educate us as his story segues from a murder mystery to a chronicle of medieval anarchy. The author’s first challenge is to introduce us to a world lit by fire, beset by demons and obsessed with magic. This is real history, but it is also a murder mystery that fans of Agatha Christie would appreciate, so I will not give the plot away. Tignonville handles his dilemma adroitly, but justice remains elusive. In a few fast-paced chapters we come to admire the resourceful Tignonville as he pursues his quarry and fear for him when his prime suspect turns out to be a powerful lord. (Little, Brown and Company/Little, Brown and Company) The front cover to 'Blood Royal: A True Tale of Crime and Detection in Medieval Paris' by Eric Jager. By the debased standards of a hard time, his rascality was conspicuous. Louis had manipulated the mentally addled king to enrich himself, and he also seduced other men’s wives - a hazardous hobby even in medieval France. We generally associate medieval criminal investigations with torture or trial by combat, which were standard procedures, but to solve this case Tignonville relied on extensive interviews of witnesses, a few tangible pieces of evidence and deductive reasoning. The most interesting aspect of this tale is Tignonville’s systematic investigation of the crime without the aid of fingerprints, video cameras or DNA evidence. The provost (that is, the police chief) of Paris, a knight named Guillaume de Tignonville, is ordered to solve the crime.

In “Blood Royal,” Louis of Orleans, the brother of French King Charles VI, is ambushed and hacked to death, an act of lèse-majesté that threatens the stability of the realm.

To compose a whodunit about real events that transpired six centuries ago takes chutzpah, but it seems to suit Eric Jager, whose previous work, “The Last Duel,” is set in the same era. A True Tale of Crime and Detection in Medieval Paris

Blood royal by eric jager