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The Devonshire town of Crediton is awaiting an important guest, the Bishop of Exeter. But a band of mercenary soldiers is already in residence, and though mercenaries are a common sight in the fourteenth century, these men are bent on havoc. They terrify travellers, show no respect to anyone and there's a rumour a local girl has been seduced by their leader. The bishop's visit could be ruined...
Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford, and Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace, reluctantly attend the bishop's welcome dinner and are relieved when a disturbance interrupts the meal. They are less pleased, though, when they discover there's been a robbery amongst the mercenaries. And then a young girl is discovered murdered, hidden in a chest. The Crediton killings have begun...
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When he halted his wagon, he grunted with the effort of clambering down from his perch, then winced as his sleeve caught on a splinter and the cloth ripped. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Medieval novels are becoming increasingly popular with the reading public and there are a number of well written books by authors such as Paul Doherty, Bernard Knight, Susanna Gregory, to name but a few. Michael Jecks has a way to go in numbers of books written before he catches up with these stalwarts, but his content is good and his writing style makes for easy reading.
14th century Devon and a gang of mercenaries are becoming a nuisance to the local villages. Mercenaries are a common enough site in these troublesome times but this group are particularly troublesome, showing no respect for anyone and seducing what local girls they can get hold of. Then one of the young girls is found murdered and hidden in a chest. Is the killer one of the mercenaries, or is it one of the locals? Sir Baldwin needs to find out as quickly as possible before another murder is committed.
Even though I've now read two of the books out of sequence, I don't think it's a problem, although certainly I'll have to read more to find out how Simon and Baldwin got together in the first place. Michael Jecks is one terrific storyteller, in my opinion. He makes the characters as well as the time in which they live come alive, in ways that other novels seem to miss. And, from reading other reviews here, perhaps sometimes his research is not 100% accurate; but if I really wanted to learn more history, I wouldn't choose fiction as the means of doing so.
I've read enough of the medieval period, however, to believe that Mr. Jecks has done more than a little homework. I believe his version of the 1300s is more realistic-noisier, dirtier and less nice than that of many another author. On the other hand, his way with dialogue is masterful, and he chooses to forward his story by using that device more often than not.
In this episode, a troup of mercenaries-hard, coarsened men of war-stop to rest in the small town of Crediton, not far from Exeter, and before anyone has time to do much more than blink, two women of the town are found dead. A robbery occurs, and as it happens, the Keeper of the King's Peace, Baldwin Furnshill along with his friend, Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford Castle are visiting the local priest to celebrate a visit by the bishop.
Simon and his wife Marguerite have recently lost their baby son to a childhood illness and have not yet been able to reconcile this loss to or with each other. This leaves Simon to spend perhaps more time than usual with Baldwin and his investigations. It certainly does appear that the culprit is a young recruit named Cole, but if he really did steal the plate from the mercenary captain, Sir Hector, what did he do with it all before he got conked on the head?
Baldwin methodically and carefully investigates all the possibilities before yet another body is discovered. With none of the modern detection methods available, Baldwin and Simon use their wits and various skills to eliminate the impossibilities and find the improbable culprit. A very satisfying and enjoyable book!
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