Like many readers of this 15-book series, I would have liked it to go on forever, but if it must end, this last entry is all I hoped for in wrapping things up in an extremely satisfying manner. Disinherited knight Crispin Guest, who became the Tracker of London solving multiple mysteries along with his young apprentice Jack Tucker, have become beloved characters over the years. The date is 1399 and begins with the death of the Duke of Lancaster and ends with his son, Henry Bolingbroke, seizing the crown. The mystery involves the death of nuns in a priory and missing relics. The book's sense of time and setting are so authentic, and author Jeri Westerson has given her truly memorable characters a lovely and fitting ending. I can only encourage anyone who has not read this series to please check it out. Highly recommended.

Jeri Westerson brings the story of Crispin Guest, London’s Tracker, to a close in a medieval historical novel that brought tears to my eyes. Anyone who has followed Crispin’s story will be filled with regret, but will also cheer as the story culminates in The Deadliest Sin. For fifteen books, Westerson has told the story of the disgraced knight forced to live by his wits on the streets of London.

By February 1399, Crispin is in his mid-forties. He lives with Jack Tucker, his apprentice, and Jack’s growing family in the Shambles. The pair continue to investigate murders and crimes in London, so the Lady Prioress at St. Frideswide Prirory hires them to investigate the murders of two nuns.

It’s not an easy case because the Prioress Drueta Rowebern won’t allow the men in the nuns’ dormitory. Crispin is appalled to learn the state of the murders. One nun was found near the pigsty with food stuffed down her throat. The second one was smothered, wrapped in blankets from all the others. But, when screams send him running to the church, and he sees the condition of the third body, he begins to understand. This nun has coins coming out of her mouth. And, all three bodies are reflections of the painting in the church that depicts the Seven Deadly Sins.

As Crispin and Jack investigate, they learn the deaths are connected to an earlier death, that of the nun responsible for the apothecary. But, everyone says Dame Audrey died of a fever. When Crispin’s former lover, Philippa, and her son volunteer to help in the case, and Philippa is attacked, Crispin starts to suspect there’s more to this case than anger. Gravedigging, confrontational nuns, and additional crimes help Crispin and Jack wrap up the case.

However, The Deadliest Sin also represents the conclusion to the historical storyline of the mystery series. Crispin Guest is a disgraced knight, stripped of his rank, his lands, his honor, for plotting against Richard II. Guest was always a Lancaster man. In February, 1399, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, is dying, and Guest is allowed at his bedside. Lancaster was Guest’s mentor, the man who raised him from the age of seven, although he was forced to deny him because of Crispin’s treason. In fact, Richard II has banished Lancaster’s son, Henry. By the time Crispin and Jack have concluded their case, Henry is in London after marching through England. How will Crispin Guest be treated if there is a new Lancaster king on the throne?

Westerson skillfully wraps up the series with the elements that have been essential in these mysteries, Guest’s life as London’s Tracker, an interesting case involving the religious life and even missing relics, and the historical elements. It’s sad to leave Crispin Guest behind, but there are triumphant moments for London’s Tracker.

I am so glad that I (inadvertently) broke my rule about never picking up a book from later in a series without first reading everything that comes before it. I haven't read any of the other books in Westerson's Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mystery series, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Deadliest Sin. It's to Westerson's credit that the final book in the series is entirely accessible to new readers. I loved the mystery - murders at a convent - set against the backdrop of Henry of Lancaster's return to England from exile. The characters are compelling and the setting is rich. I think I'm going to have to go back to the beginning and find out exactly how Crispin and Jack got here.

Another rollicking and action-packed adventure with the genial Crispin Guest at the dawn of one of the most tumultuous centuries in English history.

This time around, Guest, the genial Tracker of London, is called upon to untangle and try to resolve some rather unsavory goings-on taking place within the walls of a priory in London where an unscrupulous killer is wreaking havoc among the community. Nuns are gruesomely murdered and the Deadly Seven Sins are definitely invoked by the killer when it comes to staging the killings......

Then it's also 1399, and England is teetering on the brink of civil war. The new Duke of Lancaster, Henry of Bolingbroke is back in town & more determined than ever to send his royal cousin Richard II packing and usurpe the crown....
Crispin, an ancient ward of Bolingbroke's late father, John of Gaunt, will have the difficult task to choose between his expected loyalty towards the current & legitimate monarch to whom he owes allegiance and his deeply rooted bonds with the Lancastrian clan....

A magnificent blend of historical fiction and murder mystery, fiendishly plotted and blessed with a cast of unforgettable characters that kept me entertained and enthralled long into the night! I hope that Jeri Westerson will bring back the winsome Crispin back into my life soon🤞

Go ahead and enjoy without any moderation whatsoever and please read the previous titles available in the compelling and highly entertaining series👍👍

Many thanks to Netgalley and Canongate/Severn for this terrific ARC.

I was looking forward to the final mystery about Tracker Crispin Guest with both anticipation and apprehension. I have become attached to the characters in these medieval mysteries and had fingers crossed that Crispin, Jack and all the others in Crispin's circle would survive the perilous events of 1399.

The Deadliest Sin has two plots. The first is the mystery Crispin and Jack are hired to solve. Nuns at the St. Frideswide Priory are dying, three in one week. The first was a natural death from fever, the latter two were definitely murders. Prioress Drueta Rowebern asks Crispin to investigate because she expects discretion and a quick result, something she knows she will not get if she calls in the civil authorities. There are only twelve inhabitants of the priory left: the prioress, nine sisters, the priory priest, and a one-armed caretaker. When more murders occur it is obvious that the villain is a member of the holy community, not an intruder.

The second plot concerns the return of Henry Bolinbrook to England in order to claim the titles and lands his cousin King Richard II confiscated when Henry was unjustly exiled. Indeed, the novels opens with Crispin at the deathbed of Henry's father John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and Crispin's childhood mentor. So the reader is brought full circle to Crispin's past as the tracker is drawn back into court conspiracies and the consequences of his 16 year treasonous actions which caused his downfall.

The murder plot is a tale of twisted evil that Crispin unravels in good time. If anything, the it illustrates the consequences of forced vocations on young women who are better suited to the married state. The political plot is even more complex as lords and commoners begin to choose sides in what will ultimately end in the Wars of the Roses. Will Crispin stay a Lancastrian or will he honor his vow made only a few years earlier to support Richard?

Will he keep his head down and remain in the Shambles with Jack and his family, end up in the Tower for backing the wrong side, or is there a third path to an entirely different future?

Westerson stays true to her tracker and gives him a very fitting end.

Ms. Westerson has warned us for the past few books that the end of the series was drawing near, and The Deadliest Sin wraps up the story of Crispin Guest, from attainted former knight to Tracker of London, and his loyal apprentice, Jack Tucker. Crispin has been called to investigate the murder of nuns at a local priory, each in the manner of a Deadly Sin, as depicted in the priory church. Meanwhile, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, has arrived in England and is advancing on London to take back his inheritance, and Crispin must decide whether his loyalty is to King Richard II or to the family he served as a knight. A very satisfying ending to the Crispin Guest tale.