Place of Repose - Katharine Tiernan

The year is 875, and the Danish king of York, Halfden Ragnarsson, is carrying fire and sword across Northumbria: the once-great Christian country is at the mercy of the heathen. The monks of Lindisfarne flee, taking the relics of Saint Cuthbert and the Lindisfarne Gospels with them. Their journey in search of a new home for the Saint lasts for seven years, and changes the lives of the brothers for ever. It is a tale of ambition and intrigue, revenge and reconciliation -- and for the youngest of the brothers, of true love lost and found. This gripping novel makes a distant world vital, vivid and appealing to the contemporary reader. An extraordinary story combines with the skilful and engaging re-creation of characters and relationships at this fateful moment in the survival of Northumbria.