The Knights TemplarThey were warrior monks, dedicated to the protection of pilgrims in the Holy Land—until an avaricious king destroyed the order. One knight, however, escaped the stake, vowing justice for his murdered brothers.A fatal tide of intoleranceWith civil war looming, tensions are high in the town of Crediton—and the foul murder of a local gold merchant and assault on his daughter merely feed the flames. Keeper of the King's Peace and former Knight Templar, Sir Baldwin Furnshill, and his partner, Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford, must find the culprit and resist the temptation to quickly condemn the most obvious suspect. But their cool heads may not prevail, for rumors are spreading that suggest the lepers of St. Lawrence's hospital—the shunned outcasts of society—are somehow responsible for Crediton's current ills. And any delay on the part of Furnshill and Puttock in apprehending a killer may well lead to a full-scale slaughter of the despised unfortunates.