Jason Vail Books in Order

A wounded knight takes a quiet job as Ludlow's deputy coroner and gets murder instead. Stephen Attebrook's first case ties a suspicious death to a runaway apprentice and the gathering threat of civil war.

A missing list of supporters on both sides of England's political crisis becomes Stephen's next assignment. To find it before war breaks out, he must navigate spies, divided loyalties, and people ready to kill for information.

Stephen is sent to a troubled priory on the Welsh border to investigate a monk's murder. What looks like a contained church matter soon opens onto wider danger as England edges closer to war.

This alternate-history adventure launches the Wasp into a North America where the old rebellion failed and Texas may become the next flashpoint. Sea travel, politics, and the first stirrings of independence drive the story forward.

In an alternate world where the American rebellion failed, the crew of the T.S. Wasp sails to England for guns and a lost copy of the Declaration of Independence. Their mission could change the future of Texas, if they live to complete it.

A Christmas thaw reveals the body of a young woman and gives Stephen a grim winter mystery to solve. Finding out who she was, and why she died, leads into old secrets and fresh danger.

Robert Attebrook, Giselle de Hafton, and Eustace FitzWalter are thrown together by escape, revenge, and raw ambition. This sweeping prequel traces the hard beginnings of the Attebrook family in twelfth-century England.

On the eve of a campaign into Wales, a castle guard is murdered and a saint's relic vanishes from a locked chamber. Stephen's search for both draws him toward war, old enemies, and trouble far beyond Ludlow.

A corpse in an inn privy and counterfeit pennies in innocent hands pull Stephen into a dangerous forgery plot. To keep his friends from the gallows, he has to trace bad money all the way up the social ladder.

A murdered girl at Ludlow's mill is only the start of Stephen's troubles. When ruffians traveling with a bear wagon kidnap his niece Ida, he chases them across England in a desperate race to save her.

A lord is found hanged in a locked chamber beside another corpse, and the easy verdict does not satisfy Stephen. A missing letter, Welsh diplomacy, and enemies in Hereford's underworld turn the case into one of his most dangerous.

Ari Thorgilsson builds a ship to rescue his family from poverty, only to lose it on a brutal voyage west. Stranded in a hostile land, he must fight, bargain, and survive if he wants any hope of getting home again.

A blind poet's tale of buried treasure sends Atli Helgason racing toward Scotland in a stolen ship. With a Danish warlord in pursuit, the hunt for Snorri's lost hoard turns into a fast, dangerous voyage around Britain.

When a mill burns in Ludlow and the miller is found dead in the ruins, Stephen is drawn back into murder despite himself. At the same time, thieves strip away the little money he has left, forcing him to choose between justice and survival.

Stephen reaches Windsor just as the murdered confessor of Prince Edward is pulled from the Thames. While trying to solve the killing, he must also protect his niece Ida from a marriage plot that could cost her home and future.

When Harry learns that his estranged wife sold their sons into serfdom, he begs Stephen for help. Their search for the boys carries them through a countryside already breaking under war, and into lethal danger in Wales.

Robert Attebrook discovers that Henry II did not die naturally, but by poison hidden in a crafted cup. The revelation throws Robert and Giselle back into deadly conflict with Eustace FitzWalter and the high politics of Richard's world.

A castle officer is found dead in an Oxford bathhouse, and Stephen's bitter enemy hires him to prove it was murder. While Stephen is pulled into secret work for Prince Edward, Gilbert takes the case into Oxford's underworld.

Bones on a hillside and a gold ring point to two missing men, but the obvious suspect may be the wrong one. Stephen takes on the case while enemies try to destroy him with charges of treason and private revenge.

Inheritance, marriage politics, and old enemies drive this later Attebrook family saga. As power shifts again in twelfth-century England, the family faces another bruising fight over land, loyalty, and survival.

Money, reputation, and old grudges collide in another Ludlow investigation for Stephen. As he digs into the affairs of the town's wealthiest people, he finds that prosperity can hide motives every bit as dangerous as open hatred.

With Prince Edward held captive by Simon de Montfort, Stephen is summoned to investigate a suspicious death in Hereford. The real task is riskier still, to help Edward's escape plan without wrecking the chance to restore the king.

A tavern keeper's death looks accidental until Stephen sees the signs of murder. Then he is ordered to hunt a vicious robber gang, leaving Lady Ida to pursue justice at home while he rides into a country sliding toward lawlessness.

An abbot dies after eating at the Broken Shield Inn, and rumor threatens to ruin Stephen's friends. What begins as a question of bad food grows into murder, home invasion, and a wider hunt through the countryside.

In 1488 London, Jem McNair is already on the run for treason when a friend is found stabbed to death. To clear the murder and stay alive, he has to investigate while risking exposure at every step.