The book Mystery for the Highwayman contains two detective stories from the late 14th century
The central characters of the book are Jakub Protiva, the swift of Prague's New Town, and his friend, the somewhat mischievous monk Blasius.
The first story tells how the Czech lords captured and imprisoned King Wenceslas IV. Someone unknown has taken advantage of these dramatic circumstances to brazenly rob the Augustinian monastery treasure at Charles Monastery, and Protiva and Blasius suddenly have a lot of trouble tracking down the robber.
The second story begins at the Golden Goose Inn in the Horse Market, where Balbi, a wealthy Venetian merchant, is murdered. A strange sign - a bloody mark on his body - leads the two medieval detectives to a castle on the Sázava River, whose owner is said to be afflicted by a mysterious ancestral curse. Is this ancient curse connected with the murder of a Venetian merchant and the bloody mark with which he was branded?
