Much of the county lies under the iron rule of the Royal Forest laws, with all hunting reserved to the King. The penalty for killing a deer is mutilation or death, and these harsh laws are rigorously upheld by the King’s foresters, notorious for their greed and corruption. In June 1195, a horse gallops into the sleepy village of Sigford, the broken shaft of an arrow protruding from its rider’s back. The embroidered badge sewn on the dead man’s tunic identifies him as a senior officer of the Royal Forest. With the victim’s purse still full of money, the motive for murder is a mystery. But when a second forest officer is violently attacked, county coroner Sir John de Wolfe begins to uncover evidence of a sinister conspiracy.