Publisher's Synopsis
At an auction house in Bath, England, a large slab of carved stone is up for sale. At the height of what turns into very competitive bidding, there is a holdup attempt by three masked raiders who are trying to steal the stone. They shoot and kill the highest bidder, a professor who has recognized the female figure carved in the stone as the Wife of Bath from Chaucer s "Canterbury Tales. "The masked would-be thieves flee, leaving the stone behind
Peter Diamond and his team are assigned to investigate, and the stone is moved into Diamond s office so he can research its origins. The carving causes such difficulties that he starts to think it has jinxed him. Meanwhile, as Diamond s leads take him to Chaucer s house in Somerset, his intrepid colleague Ingeborg goes undercover to try to track down the source of the handgun used in the fatal murder."
