Asylum by Peter Darvill-Evans

1728, Oxford appears to be a haven of quiet tranquility, under the warm sun of summer, merchants, students and clerics go about their daily, unhurried tasks. The proctor of the Franciscan friary, Alfric has only two small problems, one of the friars has gone missing, and there's a traveling showman, calling himself the Doctor, with a pretty young noblewoman by his side, attracting crowds in the narrow streets.

When the missing friar is found dead, the Doctor is convinced he has been murdered. There is a ruthless killer at large, and Alfric reluctantly teams up with the Doctor to track him down.

Their investigation leads towards the most celebrated of the Franciscan brotherhood: Roger Bacon, famed throughout Christendom as a scholar - and, in the far future, the subject of a revolutionary thesis by technographer Nyssa of Traken.