Wolf, best known for her historical romance novels, chooses the setting of her first mystery with care. Norman England was one of those pivotal periods when the old world and the new both clashed and coexisted, when ancient tales of witchcraft could still freeze the blood of even the most modern-thinking men and women.
When 20-year-old Hugh Corbaille loses his beloved adoptive father, the Sheriff of Lincoln, his world becomes dark and saddened. When he is told soon afterward that he may actually be Hugh de Leon, son and heir to the late earl of Wiltshire, his world explodes into a contradiction of doubt and danger--the earl had been murdered on the same day that his young son disappeared 14 years before. Hugh has no memories of his life before his adoption, but a sympathetic woman healer helps him recover pieces from his past--including his presence at Wiltshire's murder. --Dick Adler