The year is 1538 ce ...Richard Whiting and his courageous companions are the stewards of impossibly rare artifacts that have been safeguarded for millennia within Glastonbury Abbey by a secret inner circle called the "Company of Avalon." Struggling to endure through the brutal religious reform of Henry VIII, in a race against time and the looming shadow of the gallows, Abbot Whiting defies the king while the Company of Avalon colludes in secret to remove the treasures-including the bones of King Arthur and relics of Jesus, brought to ancient Briton by Joseph of Arimathea-to a remote isle of Scotland. Full of intrigue, myth and magic, with historical detail and unforgettable characters caught in the web of fate, the story unwinds the secrets and mysteries behind the bones, Joseph's relics, and the veneration of Mary Magdalene, along with the consequences of their bold mission. The Company of Avalon is the first book in The Summer Country trilogy spaning fifteen hundred years in legendary Somerset, England. The saga of the conspirators in Book One sets the stage for the prequels that follow in Book Two, The Queen's Tale, and Book Three, When Swans Fly.