A Crowning Mercy

Author: Cornwell, Bernard

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 28 June 2018 by HarperCollins Publishers (HarperCollins) in the United Kingdom.

In a country at war, a secret inheritance reveals a dark conspiracy …

On a sunlit afternoon in seventeenth-century Dorset, a young girl falls in love with a stranger.

But when her Puritan brother tries to force her into an unbearable marriage she flees, taking with her only the gift left to her by her unknown father, a gold pendant sealed by an engraving of an axe, and the words: St Matthew.

One of four intricately wrought seals – each holding a secret within – it can, when combined with the other three, bring great wealth and power. This power is her true inheritance – but it’s a perilous legacy others will kill for …