RAISE THE HUE AND CRY! A wealthy merchant has been murdered in his own home, and the suspect has fled to sanctuary in a local church. Enter Sir Faucon de Ramis, the king's new Servant of the Crown in the shire, to solve the murder, assisted by his prickly secretary, Brother Edmund. As Faucon begins his hunt, the shire's the new Crowner finds himself in the upside down world of a woman's trade. Not only does the merchant's wife own the business-Unheard of! -the suspect is the daughter's betrothed, or so the town believes. But what about the bloody shoe prints and missing tally sticks at the scene, and what does the sheriff have to gain?