I am Richard and once was a monk of the Cistercian order at Boxley Abbey, north of Maidstone, Kent. It is now the Year of Our Lord 1389, and I am far from that life of poverty, contemplation and silence that I lived for most of my years. Boxley was my home from near infancy until I had passed 35 years when I was ejected by an abbot who wanted rid of me.

Thus begins The Song of Oswald, a medieval thriller that traces the tumultuous events of a former monk, who finds and loses his long lost brother, becomes a murder suspect and thief, falls in love with a young woman and inherits a vast family fortune.

The Song of Oswald could be likened in tone to The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, Hodd by Adam Thorpe, or Morality Play by Barry Unsworth. It was also inspired by Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, though my depiction of the Middle Ages is a little grittier and the characters are more three dimensional.

To Richard, the idea of leaving Boxley Abbey would be unthinkable. He has spent all his life there, and if he did leave, he imagines his “life would end in a trice” and his skin “mauled to ribbons by the claws of the devil.” And that is mostly what happens to him: the corrupt Abbot Dunstan expels him because he stands in the way of plans to expand the abbey. Richard also knows Dunstan has raped a young peasant woman, Claire, who was caught in the abbey stealing a loaf of bread.

Richard leaves Boxley to accompany Claire back to her family, but within the hour, he is reunited with Oswald, his brother, who he has not seen in 26 years and who has become a felon-for-hire, a sort of legendary Robin Hood figure. Oswald’s latest client happens to be Abbot Dunstan, who wants him to steal the holy bones of an English martyr from a French abbey. Unaware of the relation between the two men, the Abbot also charges Oswald with a second directive: kill Richard.

Oswald finds Richard too useful to kill at first, and there is also an unspoken tenderness between them. Along with the spirited and resourceful Claire, they undertake their dangerous mission into war-torn France. Richard is at first appalled by the idea of stealing holy relics but soon finds reason to be involved. He poses as a traveling monk and infiltrates the French abbey on reconnaissance to please Oswald. The abbey is being used as a fortress for the assets of local gentry and is run by another corrupt abbot, not unlike Dunstan. The mission ends in chaos. The English army invades ahead of Oswald and company, seizes the reliquary and razes the abbey to the ground. The cold-blooded commander of the army kills Oswald.

Richard feels a growing love for Claire, along with troubling erotic thoughts. As a life-long monk, he has no ability to act upon or express this. As they travel back to England, they stumble on a mysterious sculpture, the Rood of Grace, a wood figure of the Christ that can be made to move by hidden wires, like a marionette. It is wondrous and profane. Richard thinks it should be burned, but Claire believes a good use may be found for it. They smuggle it back to England and use it to extract a confession from a frightened Abbot Dunstan. Richard then offers to sell the Rood to Dunstan for Boxley Abbey. Claire is shocked at this deal with Dunstan, her rapist. She argues with Richard, then leaves his life.

With the proceeds of the Rood’s sale, Richard starts a free school with the parish priest. He is summoned by the mother of the King, who once knew Oswald. She restores his family’s baronetcy which was fraudulently taken from them years ago. Richard leaves his school to manage his estates. Without his teaching, his life is empty until he sees Claire, years later, in the marketplace. The Song of Oswald concludes with Richard coming to terms with his feelings for her and finally expresses them. Claire has been waiting.