Dead Widow

The darkest place is under the candlestick. Royal notary Jakub of Zbyň and his nephew Filip investigate the murder of a prostitute with a broad clientele. How a silver treasure connects to the capital crime and where the threads of intrigue lead are questions they must answer. Filip is now an old man of blessed age, but when he was a young man, he helped his uncle, the royal notary Jakub of Zbyň, investigate crimes committed by the sinful inhabitants of the Kingdom of Bohemia. He wrote down three particularly interesting cases for future generations in his book Three Crimes at the Court of Charles IV. The murder of the widow Bohunka and its subsequent investigation was a deeply personal matter for Filip: he was not only friends with the deceased Bohunka, but also occasionally used her services, as did many other townsfolk, students, and even monks. The murdered woman was a prostitute, and a beret with Filip's initials was found by her body. However, he could not have murdered Bohunka, because at the time of the crime, he was outside Prague with another mistress, Majdalenka. Filip therefore asks his uncle Jakub of Zbyň for help, and together they begin to unravel a tale of intrigue and silver treasure. In the end, the proverb that the darkest place is under the candlestick proves true, and Filip is cleared of false suspicion. However, he will never look at many secular and spiritual authorities in the same way again.