Hildegard of Meaux - A Cistercian Abbess with a keen instinct for crime solving - is accompanying the archbishop of York to London for the opening of parliament amid much civic unrest. While packing to leave, the archbishop's saucier is found brutally murdered in the ale vat, and it emerges that the culprit must be one of the archbishop's party. The journey from York to London is fraught with more deadly surprises, and it becomes clear to Hildegard that this sinister plot may also involve King Richard, and those looking to depose him at all costs. Traitors, murderers, noblemen and madmen come together to create a puzzling scheme that only Hildegard can solve, digging up past grudges, new weapons and a mysterious friar. The most recent instalment in the highly acclaimed Hildegard of Meaux series, A Parliament of Spies paints a vivid picture of medieval London, where loyalty and treason are very difficult to identify.