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Michael Jecks - Page 2

The Tainted Relic The Butcher of St Peter's The Tolls of Death The Outlaws of Ennor The Templar's Penance

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First British Edition Simon & Schuster (2005)

The Tainted Relic
Writing with the Medieval Murderers
Five enthralling interlinked mysteries from Bernard Knight, Ian Morson, Michael Jecks, Susanna Gregory and Philip Gooden, with a prologue by Simon Beaufort.
July, 1100. Jerusalem has fallen to the Crusader armies; the Holy City lies ransacked. Amidst the chaos, an English knight named Geoffrey Mappestone is entrusted with a valuable religious relic: a fragment of the True Cross, allegedly stained with the blood of Christ. The relic is said to be cursed: anyone who touches it will meet an untimely and gruesome end as soon as it leaves their possession.
Several decades later, the Cross turns up in the possession of a dealer - robbed and murdered en route to Glastonbury. Investigating the death, Bernard Knight’s protagonist Crowner John learns of its dark history.
In Oxford in 1269, the discovery of a decapitated monk leads Ian Morson’s academic sleuth William Falconer to uncover a link to the relic. In 1323, in Exeter, Michael Jecks’ Sir Baldwin has reason to suspect its involvement in at least five violent deaths.
Thirty years later, several suspicious deaths occur in Cambridge during a contentious debate about Holy Blood relics. Once more, as Susanna Gregory's Matthew Bartholomew and Brother Michael are to discover, the tainted relic has a crucial part to play.
Finally, it’s despatched to London, where it falls into the hands of an unscrupulous bookdealer and where Philip Gooden’s Nick Revill will determine its ultimate fate.
The Medieval Murderers is a group of crime writers whose novels span some of the most exciting periods of English history. The five members, Bernard Knight, Ian Morson, Michael Jecks, Susanna Gregory and Philip Gooden, are in constant demand to give talks and sit as panels for libraries, bookshops, clubs and associations throughout the UK.

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First British Edition Headline (2005)

Paperback - Headline (2005)

The Butcher of St Peter's
Exeter 1323
A strange man is entering people’s houses at night, causing panic amongst householders, because this is a man who likes children. And although many had thought him harmless, now he seems to have committed murder. A man lies dead in his own home, slaughtered merely for trying to protect his children, and the folk of Exeter want this menace caught and hanged.
For Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, the death is suspicious. The dead man was an enthusiastic seeker of felons, a King’s officer in the city of Exeter, and lie had many enemies, especially among the criminals who infest the filthy suburbs where the brothels lie.
But the whole city is on edge. The friars are preaching against the Cathedral Chapter, and there are allegations of theft from guests in the Dean’s house, all at a time when the King’s friends are setting knight against knight and lord against lord. As the country prepares for yet another civil war, and the city’s new Coroner appears to want to set himself against the King’s allies, Baldwin knows that finding this murderer is gong to be very difficult indeed.
And when two more people are found dead, the city of Exeter shudders at the thought that there could be a killer out there who is determined enough to strike again and again...

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First British Edition Headline (2004)

The Tolls of Death
After their grueling journey back from Galicia, Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace, and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock, are almost home, but in the Cornish vill of Cardinham, while they rest, a penniless young woman, Athelina, is found hanged alongside the dead bodies of her children.
At first this seems to be the final act of a desperate woman, but then suspicions are raised, and Simon and Baldwin are asked to investigate her death. But where can they start? The Constable seems to run the whole place as his own fiefdom; the miller ignores the law with impunity; even the priests are too scared to talk. The rivalry and feuding seems to involve the whole of Cardinham - including the castle’s men-at-arms and the strange, grim-faced squire who has so recently arrived. Who is he, and what is his interest in the affairs of the villagers? And why won’t the men in the castle enforce the Manor’s laws?
Yet among the peasants someone knows more about the death than they are letting on. Simon and Baldwin soon realise that Athelina’s death is not just an isolated incident; the killings go back many years, to a very old feud.
As the escape of a traitor threatens to embroil the country in a new civil war, and as rebels are sought out by the King’s men up and down the land, Simon and Baldwin must look beyond the friendships and family loyalties to find an evil killer, and secure Cardinham’s safety - but when law and order fail, how can any man hope for justice?
Acclaim for Michael Jecks' previous mysteries
'The most wickedly plotted medieval mystery novels' The Times
'Leaves the reader wanting more' Yorkshire Post
'Brisk medieval whodunnit…' Literary Review
'A godly tale in the vein of Cadfael and equally enjoyable.' Ted Jury, Coventry Evening Telegraph
'A medieval mystery to rank with the best' Northern Echo
'Like Ellis Peters' Cadfael, Puttock is a carefully drawn character who combines the simple whodunit formula with a loving attention to detail, with lively, intriguing descriptions. It is a book that will help you turn back the pages of history and enjoy the depth and texture of a long-vanished England' Croydon Advertiser
'Jecks draws his characters with a craftsman's hand, evokes atmosphere with the touch of an old master and keeps you wriggling on the hook of suspense as skilfully as Christie at her best. Enjoyable to the very end' Northern Echo
‘A tortuous and exciting plot… the construction of the story and th sense of period are excellent’ Shots

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First British Edition Headline (2003)

Paperback - Headline (2004)

The Outlaws of Ennor
On their return home from their pilgrimage to Spain in the summer of 1323, Baldwin and Simon’s ship is attacked off the coast of Brittany by the twin evils of pirates and a terrible storm. As the ship begins to break up, Simon can only watch in horror as Baldwin is swept overboard and disappears from sight.
Washed ashore on the main island of Ennor, Simon is distraught to think that his closest friend and confidant is dead, but he has to put aside his grief when the master of the castle, Ranulph de Blancminster, demands that he investigate the murder of Robert, the hated gather-reeve, or tax collector. Ranulph wages a constant battle against the lawless inhabitants of the neighbouring island of St Nicholas, a group of godless peasants who live by smuggling and piracy. Convinced that one of them is the culprit, he demands retribution.
Meanwhile Baldwin himself has been saved. Washed up on St Nicholas, he is nursed back to health by the beautiful Tedia, and here on the island he uncovers a different picture of the people as he too begins to investigate the murder, at the Prior’s insistence. Although there are plenty of suspects, Baldwin soon learns that a tight network of secrets and loyalties binds the villagers in this isolated community, and realises that nothing he is told can be taken at face value.
As Baldwin and Simon’s parallel investigations bring them closer to the truth, they become embroiled in the bitter rivalry between the two island communities. They have both seen enough bloodshed to last them a lifetime, but can they uncover the truth in time to prevent still more?

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First British Edition Headline (2003)

The Templar's Penance
It is the summer of 1323, and Baldwin Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock have been granted leave to go on pilgrimage, both seeking solace after the recent, traumatic events in Gidleigh. Together they travel across Europe to Santiago de Compostela in Portugal but, as usual, danger is never far away.
Foreign travel is perilous - outlaws and robbers threaten at all times, not to mention the risks from political unrest and a recent spate of attacks on pilgrims. But it seems an even greater menace hangs over the sacred city of Santiago. A beautiful young girl is found raped and murdered on the hillside, her poor, broken body leaving no doubt that she is the victim of the most brutal of killers.
Among the first to arrive at the scene, Baldwin and Simon lend their investigative skills to the ensuing enquiry headed by the local pesquisidore, Munio. With so many keen minds on the case it can only be a matter of time before the culprit is found. But they are reckoning without the unexpected appearance of a face from Baldwin’s past - a face which looks set to threaten both the investigation and, it seems increasingly likely, Baldwin’s very future.

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