Showing results by author "Michael Jecks" in All Categories

1346. France. King Edward III is restless. Despite earlier victories the French crown remains intact. Determined to bring France under his own rule, Edward has devised a new plan of attack – one which he believes will finally bring the French army to its knees: a final, cataclysmic battle ... Berenger Fripper, Vintener of a pox-ridden mob of sixteen who make up the Vintaine of Sir John de Sully, storms the beaches of Normandy to bring victory to their king. But the French are nowhere to be seen…

1325: England is a hotbed of paranoia under the reign of the unpredictable Edward II and his lover, Sir Hugh le Despenser. When the queen’s lady-in-waiting is slaughtered and a man’s body, hideously mutilated, is discovered behind the throne, the king demands to be avenged. Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, an experienced investigator of murders, is appointed to track down the killer, aided by his friend, Simon Puttock. In an age of corruption, when the king’s friends can use torture, blackmail and murder to promote their ends, a rural knight and bailiff must fight to stay alive.

When the mutilated body of midwife and healer Agatha Kyteler is discovered in a hedge one frozen wintry morning, it seems at first that a lack of clues will render the crime impossible to solve. Then a frightened local youth inexplicably flees his village, and a hue and cry is raised in his wake. Sir Baldwin Furnshill, once a Knight Templar, has doubts about the boy's guilt. He enlists his friend Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford Castle, in the hunt for a murderer.

Exeter, 1323. A strange man is entering people’s houses at night, causing panic amongst householders. 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. Sir Baldwin de Furnshill suspects that the solution isn’t that simple.

1358, Northern France. In a land ravaged by war, King John II is the prisoner of the King of England. His son, the teenaged Dauphin, must battle to impose control over the fractured kingdom. But King Charles of Navarre wants to wrestle power for himself. He leads Parisians and the Jacquerie to open rebellion, upending the social order, pitting noble against commoner in a brutal struggle for power.

1346. Calais. Berenger Fripper and the men of his Vintaine are stationed near the ancient port city, a French city under English siege. They are here to capture the city from and use it as a staging-post for future incursions into France. But with the French army and Genoese mercenaries all about them, and trouble brewing among the unit, Berenger must keep a calm head. Someone in the Vintaine is leaking vital information to the French, jeopardizing not only the safety of his men but also the future of the war, and Berenger must find out who before it's too late.

France, 1356. Ten years have passed since the battle of Crécy, and the English fighters are still abroad, laying siege to cities, towns and villages. Meanwhile the Prince of Wales raids across the continent to draw King John into a battle for sovereignty over all France. Berenger Fripper, having lost everything during the plague, is now captain of a company of mercenaries, but treachery and deceit dog him when his travels with the company lead him to Uzerche.

1325: King Edward II’s reign seems cursed. Although he has rejected his wife, Queen Isabella, he still relies on her. Even now, she is in France to negotiate peace with her brother, King Charles IV of France - but he fears for the outcome. Meanwhile, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock return from France with an urgent instruction for the King. It is to be their last mission.

Roger Mortimer was once the king’s most able commander, but now he is his most hated enemy. Escaping from the tower, Mortimer made his way to France and has hired an assassin to murder the king - but others have the same idea. As the body of a local craftsman and that of a king’s messenger who was carrying a dangerous secret are found in the city’s streets, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend, Bailiff Simon Puttock, are asked by the bishop to find out who is responsible. But when murderers can use magic, no one is safe....

1325: in the gilded cage that is the Palace of Westminster, Isabella, Queen of England, is troubled by court intrigue. Her jealous husband, Edward II, has removed all her privileges, her regal status and even her children. When Isabella is dispatched to France to negotiate peace with the French King, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill travels with her to ensure her safety. But it seems that no one can be trusted, not least the queen’s own retinue.

March 1557. Jack Blackjack is back in London and enjoying a sedentary life. After his treacherous voyage back to his beloved city the previous year, he desires nothing more than women, wine, beer and more women. But his new parish of St Helen's has different ideas for him. A week after first laying eyes on the tempting Miss Rachel Nailor, she turns up dead on the church vestry floor...and someone is trying to frame him for her murder! Rachel was a woman with many secrets. But was she murdered in a fit of lustful rage, or was it part of a wider political play?

Cold-blooded murder has transformed Simon Puttock's official obligation into something horrid, and he will need the able assistance of his friend, Sir Baldwin Furnshill, to draw a criminal out. A former Knight Templar, Sir Baldwin knows much of duty and servitude and of evil freely indulged in the name of godliness or greed. Now, justice must be served, even if their search exposes extortion, foul corruption, rule by fear, and killers willing, even eager, to shed more blood.

August 1556. Jack Blackjack is on a simple mission: make it back home to his beloved London. It should be simple, right? Wrong. He's made it as far as Exeter, but before he can secure a fresh steed in that hellish city, he's faced with a dead priest, ruthless thieves, and a devious Dean who's determined to see the back of Jack. That suits Jack just fine - he wants to leave! So when wealthy merchant Wolfe, offers passage to London via sea, Jack jumps at the chance...and unwittingly into further danger!

August, 1558. As London is bustling with growing trade from foreign lands, and Queen Mary's health is once again a hot topic, Jack Blackjack has much to keep him busy. And that's before his new tenant - a Dutch merchant - disappears under a cloud of suspicion, quickly presumed murdered, and Jack's latest female companion's body is found mere streets from her dwelling place.

London, 1556. Hal Westmecott, one of the city's most feared executioners, reckons Jack Blackjack owes him a favour - and now he's come to collect his dues. Hal has ordered Jack to track down his long-lost son. But when Jack's search draws him to the attention of a ruthless nobleman, a dead priest's vengeful brother and finally to a bloodstained body in a filthy lodging house, he comes to realise he is an unwitting pawn in a mesh of schemes dreamed up by the most powerful people in England. Just who is a friend, who is a foe - and will Jack escape with his life intact?

1555. A priest has been stabbed to death in the village of St Botolph, his body left to rot by the roadside, and Jack Blackjack stands accused of his murder. As well as clearing his name, Jack has his own reasons for finding out who really killed the priest, but this is an investigation where nothing is as it seems. Was it a random attack by a desperate outlaw, or do the answers lie in the murdered priest’s past? As he questions those who knew the dead man, Jack is faced with a number of conflicting accounts – and it’s clear that not everyone can be telling him the whole truth.

London, 1555. Queen Mary is newly married to Philip II of Spain - and not everyone is happy about the alliance. The kingdom is divided between those loyal to Catholic Mary and those who support her half sister, Lady Elizabeth. Former cutpurse turned paid assassin Jack Blackjack has more immediate matters to worry about. Having been ordered to kill a man, he determines to save him instead. But Jack defies his spymaster at his peril...and even the best laid plans can sometimes go awry.

Cut adrift by British Intelligence at the end of the Cold War, Jack Case is called back into service following 9/11. In a quiet Alaskan backwater, a man named Danny Lewin has committed suicide. But this was no ordinary suicide. This was an agent who held secrets. A man haunted by his past interrogating prisoners in Iraq. And British Intelligence fear that he put his secrets down on paper. Before long Case is drawn into a manhunt that drags him into the murky underworld of contemporary espionage and leaves him questioning who his allies and who his enemies are. The rules of the game have changed since the Cold War, and now Case must impose his own rules....

1326: Queen Isabella refuses to leave France and humiliates her husband, King Edward II, by flaunting her adulterous relationship with the arch-traitor Sir Roger Mortimer. The King is furious when he hears she has also betrothed their son to the daughter of the French Count of Hainault, and all England fears invasion. As news of an invasion fleet is received, the King’s knights, including Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, are commanded to London to protect the King and his realm.

June 1554. Professional assassin Jack Blackjack has been dispatched to the palace of Woodstock, where Queen Mary's half sister, Princess Elizabeth, is being kept under close guard. Jack's employer has reason to believe that a spy has been installed within the princess' household, and Jack has been ordered to kill her. Jack has no choice but to agree. But he arrives at Woodstock to discover that a murder has already been committed.