Titles in Print

Michael Jecks's medieval West Country mysteries, listed in order of publication, including collaborative novels written with fellow members of The Medieval Murderers. Click on the title for more details.

Titles marked with are also available in an audio edition; click the icon for more details.

See also the list of short stories by Michael Jecks.

THE LAST TEMPLAR

When a spate of burnings occur in a quiet Devon village, Bailiff Simon Puttock is grateful for the help of the astute yet strangely reticent Sir Baldwin, who has recently come to live nearby. Are the deaths linked, and will the murderer strike again? (March, 1995)

THE MERCHANT'S PARTNER

The midwife and healer Agatha Kyteler has only ever helped the locals, but to some superstitious folk her skills seem like witchcraft. Sir Baldwin and his friend Simon must forge a path through the suspicion, jealousy and disloyalty of the little village to find her murderer. (November, 1995)

A MOORLAND HANGING

A runaway serf can expect death if his lord catches him, but Peter Bruther can claim the protection of the King when he runs to Dartmoor, so his death is murder. But with the tinminers' protection racket, Sir William Beauscyr's feuding sons, and the strange northern knight, there are too many suspects. (May 1996)

THE CREDITON KILLINGS

The arrival of a brutal band of mercenaries is fearful enough for the small town of Crediton, but when a servant girl is found murdered and the mercenary captain's treasure is stolen, Simon and Baldwin find that the Crediton Killings have only just begun. (June, 1997)

THE ABBOT'S GIBBET

Tavistock's fair should be a time of enjoyment, but a decapitated corpse ends that. Simon and Baldwin cannot even tell who the victim was, yet they know that beneath the activity of the bustling fair, anger and violence lie ready to burst out. (April 1998)

THE LEPER'S RETURN

Civil war looms and a goldsmith is murdered in his own hall. Baldwin and Simon must seek the murderer quickly, before the wild rumours make the angry townspeople take their revenge on the lepers in the local hospital, causing wholesale slaughter. (November, 1998)

SQUIRE THROWLEIGH'S HEIR

After Squire Roger dies, falling from his horse, his five year old son inherits. When he too dies, Baldwin is convinced that it was no accident, but so many had motives to kill poor young Herbert. Little do Baldwin and Simon realise how shocking and sinister this investigation will prove. (June 1999)

BELLADONNA AT BELSTONE

It is hard to run a convent, but Lady Elizabeth, Prioress of Belstone, must fight devastating competition for her very position. And then young Moll is murdered, and she must call for the help. Baldwin and Simon find that primitive passions and secret ambitions are prevalent even in a house of God. (December, 1999)

THE TRAITOR OF ST GILES

A warrior lies dead, one of his hounds dead at his side, and nearby is the body of a convicted felon. Could the felon have killed a trained knight and his dog? And if he did, where is the knight's horse and his money? And then Baldwin and Simon learn that the dead knight was ambassador to the king's hated friends, a man with many enemies. (May 2000)

THE BOY-BISHOP'S GLOVEMAKER

When Ralph, a noted philanthropist, is found dead, Exeter's people are baffled, but then a youth is poisoned in the Cathedral and the mystery deepens. Was it suicide, or was he killed by outlaws in revenge for the hanging of their comrade? Hidden by the Christmas celebrations, there is a ruthless murderer who will soon strike again. (December 2000)

THE TOURNAMENT OF BLOOD

A tournament should be a time of pageant and pleasure, and yet before it can begin the man financing it is found beaten to death. Soon, even as the tournament gets under way, more men are found dead, and Baldwin and Simon must catch the murderer before he can kill again. (June 2001)

A gem of historical storytelling... authentic recreation of the modes and manners, superstitions and primitive fears that made up the colourful but brutal tableau of the Middle Ages

Northern Echo

THE STICKLEPATH STRANGLER

The joy of an innocent afternoon's play is shattered when two girls find a skull. Baldwin and Simon join the Coroner and learn that there have been several murders over the last seven years, but were they committed by a man - or is there a supernatural explanation? (November, 2001)

THE DEVIL'S ACOLYTE

In the autumn of 1322, history is about to repeat itself, or so it seems. A man has been found dead on the moors, and wine has been stolen from the Abbot's private stores. It is reminiscent of the legend of Milbrosa and the murders of the Abbot's way .... but does the Devil really provide the key to Tavistock's present fears? (June, 2002)

THE MAD MONK OF GIDLEIGH

When Mary is killed, the priest's sin seems all too clear, yet Mary was not the simple miller's daughter many thought. Many are devastated by her death, including Sir Ralph of Gidleigh himself, and when the truth about her murder emerges, life for the folk of Gidleigh won't be the same. (December, 2002)

THE TEMPLAR'S PENANCE

After the shocks of the Mad Monk of Gidleigh, Baldwin and Simon have decided to make a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, but even here they find that murder is not far away. A group of pilgrims is attacked by outlaws, then a young girl is found murdered near Santiago, and the local pesquisidore soon asks Simon and Baldwin to help try to find the killer. (June, 2003)

THE OUTLAWS OF ENNOR

Returning with relief from their pilgrimage, Simon and Baldwin are thrown from their course by pirates and foul weather. Simon is horrified to wake to recall that his friend was thrown from their ship as they neared the strange islands of Ennor. There Simon is asked to help seek the murderer of the hated local tax-collector, but his searches are hampered by knowledge of the hatred between the community on Ennor and their neighbours on St Nicholas. (January, 2004)

THE TOLLS OF DEATH

At last Simon and Baldwin are once more on the mainland, and their journey home should be shorter, but as they pass Cardinham, they learn that there has been murder in the little Cornish vill: Athelina and her two sons are dead. Baldwin and Simon soon realise that these deaths are not isolated, and want to help find the killer, but when the country is about to become embroiled in civil war, how can they hope to serve justice? (May, 2004)

THE CHAPEL OF BONES

Forty years ago, Exeter Cathedral close rang to the clamour of weapons, shouts of defiance and screams of pain. Afterwards, the bodies lying in their own blood bore silent witness to the conflicts that were tearing at the heart of the Cathedral itself. Today, in 1323, more deaths have occurred. Is the first an accident? The second is surely murder, brutal and foul. (December 2004)

THE TAINTED RELIC (by the Medieval Murderers)

A cursed relic, a piece of the True Cross which was cursed when it was stolen from a church, has passed on through time with disastrous results: the Medieval Murderers collaborate on a series of novellas, telling how their sleuths each in turn encountered the relic. (May 2005)

THE BUTCHER OF ST. PETER'S

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. (May 2005)

A FRIAR'S BLOODFEUD

Bloodshed and mayhem reach almost into Simon Puttock's own household: Simon's servant, Hugh, has been granted leave to look after his wife Constance and help raise her child. One day she is attacked and raped by a gang of men at her home. She sees her son being murdered and then her man Hugh is struck down, before she is killed and the house set on fire.

SWORD OF SHAME (by the Medieval Murderers)

From its first arrival in Britain, with the Norman forces of William the Conqueror, violence and revenge are the cursed sword's constant companions. From an election-rigging scandal in 13th century Venice to the battlefield of Poitiers in 1356, as the Sword of Shame passes from owner to owner in this compelling collection of interlinked mysteries, it brings nothing but bad luck and disgrace to all who possess it.

THE DEATH SHIP OF DARTMOUTH

In Dartmouth, a man is found lying dead in the road. But the inhabitants of this little haven dismiss his death as a drunken accident, their attention turned to more worrying matters - piracy. A ship, the St John, has been discovered, half ravaged and the crew missing, in an attack that bears all the hallmarks of the supposedly disbanded Lyme Pirates. Could this be the beginning of a vicious onslaught, or is something even more sinister happening?
Shortlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.

THE MALICE OF UNNATURAL DEATH

Roger Mortimer - the King's most hated enemy - has escaped from the Tower, and the King's life is threatened. Baldwin and Simon know the dangers of becoming embroiled in politics, in these bloodthirsty times. But when two bodies are found in the city's streets, the Bishop calls upon them to find out who was responsible. And one of the dead men was a messenger, carrying a dangerous secret...

DISPENSATION OF DEATH

The first of a short mini-series in which Baldwin and Simon are thrust into first national politics, and then international. They are taken to London with the Bishop of Exeter as part of his coterie of advisers and guards. There, they learn that there has been murder committed within the palace of Westminster itself. The King demands that they help find the murderer.

The TEMPLAR, THE QUEEN AND HER LOVER

Isabella, Queen of England, has been dispatched to France in an attempt to bring about peace between the two countries, and Baldwin must accompany her. But the day after their arrival, a servant is found murdered, with Baldwin's dagger lying next to the body. As Baldwin struggles to prove his innocence, the killer strikes again. With so many English enemies gathering in Paris, will Baldwin be able to expose the culprit in time to protect the English King?

HOUSE OF SHADOWS (by the Medieval Murderers)

Rumours of ghosts and dark secrets abound at Bermondsey Priory; when the daughter of one of the hated Despenser's servants is found dead in the surrounding marshlands, Bishop Walter asks Baldwin and Simon to investigate.