THE CROWNER JOHN BOOKS
 
THE SANCTUARY SEEKER
A corpse found  near Widecombe on Dartmoor turns out to be a murdered Crusader and sets the coroner off on a hunt, which his brother-in-law the sheriff, tries to frustrate.
paperback ISBN 07434 92056  .....  hardback (by Severn House)
 
THE POISONED CHALICE
The rape of the daughter of one of Exeter's portreeves is followed by the discovery of the body of a high-born lady in a churchyard
paperback ISBN 07434 92064 .....   hardback (by severn House)
 
CROWNER'S QUEST
A cathedral canon is found hanging in his privy on Christmas Eve, leading to a hunt for treasure trove and other dastardly events
Paperback ISBN 07434 92072 ....  hardback (by Severn House)
 
THE AWFUL SECRET
A Templar, an old aquaintance of the coroner, arrives in Exeter claiming to have a secret that will shake Christendom and soon John finds himself on the island of Lundy
paperback ISBN 07434 92080  .....hardback 0684 860686
 
THE TINNER'S CORPSE
A decapitated tinner, their missing master and unrest in the aggressively independent community of Dartmoor tinners, leads the coroner into a family feud.
paperback ISBN 0671 029665 .....  Hardback 0684 860694
 
THE GRIM REAPER
A series of bizarre killings, in which biblical texts are left as provocative clues, causes widespread alarm and suspicion amongst Exeter's clergy
paperback ISBN  0671 029673  .... hardback 0684 860708
 
FEAR IN THE FOREST
The cruel and punitive forest laws cause one of the most hated foresters to be shot from his horse by an arrow, eventually involving the coroner in a battle with an outlaw band
paperback ISBN 073449908 ,,,, hardback 07432 31082
 
THE WITCH HUNTER
A fanatical cathedral canon begins a vendetta against harmless 'wise women' in Exeter, leading to mob violence which soon endangers the coroner's Welsh mistress
paperback ISBN 0743449894 .... hardback 07432 31090
 
FIGURE OF HATE
A dysfunctional family who rule a Devon manor with a rod of iron, resist Crowner John's
efforts to investigate the murder of their tournament-crazy lord
paperback ISBN 07434 92145 .....  hardback 07434 92145
 
THE ELIXIR OF DEATH
The coroner has to investigate the wreck of a ship on the Devon coast, where all the crew have been savagely murdered and discovers a plot against the king
peperback ISBN 07434 92153 ...../ hardback 07432 59513
 
THE NOBLE OUTLAW
John's detested brother-in-law has seized the manor of an absent Crusader and forced him into outlawry on Dartmoor - it takes all the coroner's determination to right the wrong
paperback ISBN 9781-4165-25936.....  hardback  9780 7432 94980
 
THE MANOR OF DEATH
 The tale is based in Axmouth, where ruthless men are defending their piracy and smuggling with a regime of  fear. John has to investigate the killing of a young seaman in the port.
paperback ISBN 978 1 4165 2594 3.....hardback ISBN 978 0  7432 9 499 7

CROWNER ROYAL
John is ordered by King Richard to move to London to become the coroner to the royal court. Reluctantly, he goes to Westminster and is faced with a theft of treasure from the Tower and some murders related to palace intrigues.
paperback ISBN 978 1 84739 328 9......hardback ISBN 978 1 84737 297 0

Shorter Crowner John stories are also in the first four of the Medieval Murderers collaborative novels ( see p.5)
 
A number of the books have been published in Large Print, and in audio format in both tape and CD, by Clipper Audio (W F Howes)
 
The Crowner John books  have been published in translation in  France, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Romania
 
                                                   THE OTHER BOOKS
 
Prior to the Crowner John series, Bernard Knight had written many other books.
In 1962, THE LATELY DECEASED was the first of a string of contemporary crime stories with a forensic twist, published by the long-defunct Herbert Jenkins Ltd. Then followed THE THREAD OF EVIDENCE, MISTRESS MURDER, RUSSIAN ROULETTE, POLICEMAN'S PROGRESS and TIGER AT BAY, all published in the 1960s by Robert Hale Ltd.
Hale also published the hardback of THE EXPERT, a television link-book brought in paperback by W H Allen to accompany the long-running BBC series of that name, starring Marius Goring as the forensic pathologist. Bernard Knight wrote some of the story-lines and was technical adviser to the series.
Another TV link book was DEG Y DRAGWYDDOLDEB, published in Welsh by Gwasg Gomer, based on the BBC Wales television series written by the same author.
The historical novels began with LION RAMPANT in 1972, published by Robert Hale in hardback and then a paperback edition produced by the author himself. This was the romantic tragedy of Priness Nest and Prince Owain in 12th century Wales,sticking very closely to actual facts. As copies became unobtainable, the book was returned to circulation in 2005 as a 'POD' (Print on Demand) published by Back-in-Print Books, London and now available on order from bookshops or from Amazon, etc (ISBN 1903552478
The next one in 1977 was MADOC,PRINCE OF AMERICA, again a novelisation of the famous legend of the Welsh prince who sailed to Alabama in 1170 and from whom the tales of 'Welsh Indians' arose. This was published by Robert Hale in London and St Martin's Press in New York.
 
A totally different novel came in 2003, the author feeling the need for a break from Crowner John! This was BRENNAN, a post-apocalyptic story which re-created in the early 21st century, the historical Arthur tale. Brennan was a senior Army Officer in South Wales, who is left to salvage the tiny remnants of the local community after an epidemic wipes out most of the world's population. They try to claw their way back to some sort of civilisation, against attacks by Irish and continental invaders. The WESTERN MAIL said that 'it was a brilliant piece of writing, not dissimilar to Stephen King's THE STAND'
 
Another piece of writing, which appeared late in 2006, was a long short-story in Mike Ashley's series of 'Mammoth' paperbacks, the MAMMOTH BOOK OF PERFECT CRIMES AND IMPOSSIBLE MYSTERIES, published by Carol & Graf. The last tale in book, as the editor said nothing could follow it, was THE BIRDMAN OF TONYPANDY, a tongue-in-the-cheek story about a domestic murder set in present-day South Wales. Quite a change from Crowner John!
 
In 1977, probably the best-selling book ever written by Bernard Knight was the biography of Professor Milton Helpern,for many years the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City . A friend of the author, Helpern spent many hours relating his experiences and gave access to his archives to produce the book AUTOPSY-THE MEMOIRS OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST MEDICAL DETECTIVE,
published in hardback in the USA by St Martin's Press and by Harrap in UK. It went into book club and two paperback editions both in America and Britain.
 
Other non-fiction included MURDER,SUICIDE OR ACCIDENT, a popular account of forensic pathology and science, published in 1971 by Hale in London and St Martin's in New York.
Another in 1980 was DISCOVERING THE HUMAN BODY, a highly illustrated laymen's history of anatomy and physiology, published by Heinemann in UK and Lippincot and Crowell in America. This proved very popular with para-medical readers and was re-printed in recent years by Bloomsbury Press.
 
Bernard Knight is probably best-known for one particular book, KNIGHT'S FORENSIC PATHOLOGY, which has become the standard medical text in English in many areas of the world. First published by Edward Arnold (Hodder, London) in 1991, further editions appeared in 1996 and 2004, the last in collaboration with Professor Saukko of Finland.
Other medical texts include the following;-
LEGAL ASPECTS OF MEDICAL PRACTICE (five editions between 1971 -1992)Churchill, London.
THE CORONER'S AUTOPSY a guide to non-criminal autopsies for hospital pathologists - Churchill-Livingstone 1983
SIMPSONS FORENSIC MEDICINE (10th & 11th eds) Edward Arnold 1991-97) & Turkish and Spanish Eds.
FORENSIC RADIOLOGY (with K Evans) Blackwell, Oxford 1980
THE ESTIMATION OF THE TIME OF DEATH IN THE EARLY POSTMORTEM PERIOD (1&2 eds 1995-2002)Edward Arnold
THE POST-MORTEM TECHNICIAN'S HANDBOOK 1984, Blackwell, Oxford
SUDDEN DEATH IN INFANCY -1983, Faber & Faber, London
THE LAWYER'S GUIDE TO FORENSIC MEDICINE 1st ed 1982 Heinemann 2nd 1998 Cavendish London.
POCKET PICTURE GUIDE TO FORENSIC MEDICINE 1985 Gower Medical Publishing,
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE AND TOXICOLOGY 5th ed 1987, 6th ed 1990 Law Book Company, India