Michael Jecks Books in Order

By 1359, the ink on the Treaty of Brétigny has barely dried and armies across northern France are exhausted, unpaid and dangerous. Returning to Hawkwood’s company, Berenger marches through devastated countryside where every abandoned farm may hide enemies, false allies or the rumour of treasure worth killing for.

Continuing the Holy Wars saga, this novel follows the crusaders as their hopeful pilgrimage hardens into a brutal campaign across the eastern Mediterranean. As the army splinters under hunger, fanaticism and infighting, ordinary men and women must choose between faith, survival and the horrors they are ordered to commit.

On a trip to Italy, artist Nick Morris swaps English landscapes for sunlit piazzas and a tempting new commission. When another corpse appears uncomfortably close to his work, he must navigate foreign police, jealous rivals and hidden resentments to unmask a killer abroad.

In the summer of 1558, Jack Blackjack acquires a troublesome Dutch tenant who vanishes under suspicion, just as Jack’s latest lover is found dead nearby. With constables and criminals both convinced he is at the centre of the trouble, Jack must link missing merchant ships to a pair of murders.

In the shattered France of the 1350s, Berenger Fripper and his archers drift through a land full of mercenary bands, ruined villages and angry peasants. Drawn into the Jacquerie uprising and tested by treachery on all sides, the vintaine learn that rebellion can be as brutal as any formal battle.

A dream job painting a Georgian manor in the Peak District lures Nick Morris to a quiet holiday park. His plans for peaceful days with his canvas collapse when he and a neighbour discover a young man’s body in the nearby woods and local secrets turn threatening.

Struggling artist Nick Morris accepts a commission to paint hot-tempered hotelier Jason Robart, hoping for steady work and a boost to his career. When Robart is found dead from a shotgun blast, Nick becomes an unwilling sleuth, sifting through tangled personal and business grudges to clear his own name.

In 1920s Shanghai, a rich banker’s chauffeur is gunned down in the street, and Municipal Police officer Rod Cottey is given the case. His hunt for the killer drags him through gang-controlled alleys, foreign clubs and political conspiracies in a city where money and violence rule every deal.

Back in his London parish in 1557, Jack Blackjack is enjoying a lazy life until a young woman he admires is found dead on the vestry floor. Someone is framing him for her murder, and Jack must unpick her many secrets and a tangle of political motives to avoid the noose.

On the run from Queen Mary’s agents, London rogue Jack Blackjack stops at a Devon tavern, wins at dice and wakes to find himself accused of killing a powerful mine captain. Surrounded by angry tinners on their own ground, he must unmask the real killer before he ends up on the gallows.

Hoping only to reach London, Jack Blackjack pauses in Exeter and promptly trips over the corpse of a controversial Protestant preacher. Drawn into feuds between wealthy merchants and a string of attacks at sea, he bounces between taverns, brothels and a disastrous sea voyage while trying not to become the next victim.

Executioner Hal Westmecott demands that Jack Blackjack repay an old favour by tracking down his missing wife and son in London. Jack’s reluctant search pulls him into a world of vengeful families, political spies and a bloodstained lodging house, where every lead seems to produce another corpse.

In 1555 a priest is stabbed and left to rot by the roadside near St Botolph, and Jack Blackjack is branded the obvious suspect. Determined to save his own skin, Jack digs into the dead man’s past, finding grudges, lies and powerful enemies who would happily see him hang.

An anthology of strange war stories that blends history with the uncanny, this volume explores how conflict opens the door to ghosts, curses and horrors no training can explain. Jecks and his fellow contributors imagine battlefields where the enemy may not be entirely human.

In 1096 northern France, fiery preaching sends crowds rushing to join a great pilgrimage to Jerusalem that will soon become the First Crusade. A reckless gambler, his wary wife and two mistreated sisters are swept along, facing hunger, fanaticism and brutal violence as idealism curdles into holy war.

Cut loose by British intelligence after the Cold War, former agent Jack Case is dragged back into the shadows when an ex-interrogator apparently kills himself in remote Alaska. Chasing missing papers and old sins, Case navigates shifting alliances and dirty secrets that could ignite a fresh crisis.

Sent to Woodstock Palace in 1554 with orders to quietly kill a suspected spy inside Princess Elizabeth’s household, Jack Blackjack is deeply uneasy. When his target is murdered before he even arrives, Jack becomes a suspect himself and must navigate a claustrophobic, treacherous court to find the real killer.

Former cutpurse Jack Blackjack is hired to kill a man, only to realise he would rather save the intended victim than carry out the job. His change of heart drops him into a maze of Tudor plots, false identities and double-crosses where every ally might be an enemy in disguise.

In January 1554, light-fingered Jack Blackjack wakes with a hangover beside a dead man in a tavern yard and realises the purse he stole hides a coded message. Hunted by rebels and royal agents during Wyatt’s uprising, Jack must solve the murder and decode the message before London erupts.

A companion volume of short stories in which Jecks steps outside his longer series, mixing grim rural crimes, darkly comic twists and hints of the uncanny. The pieces range across periods and settings but share a focus on ordinary people pushed into dangerous corners.

Years after the siege of Calais, Berenger Fripper’s battle-scarred vintaine is once more drawn into the Hundred Years War. As Edward III’s army marches toward Poitiers, the archers face plague-scarred villages, bitter memories and a new campaign that will test whatever innocence they have left.

Calais in 1346 is an English-held city surrounded by enemies, and Berenger Fripper’s vintaine is part of its thin garrison. When it appears someone is leaking secrets to the French, Berenger must root out a traitor in the ranks while hunger, disease and fear gnaw at the men on the walls.

A tale of pride and punishment woven through history. From a boastful Norman lord to a 14th-century priory, the authors explore how the deadliest sin leads to downfall and death, linking separate historical mysteries with a common thread of human hubris.

On the beaches of Normandy in 1346, English archer Berenger Fripper and his rough vintaine land with Edward III’s invasion force. As they raid through northern France and take position near a little place called Crécy, they endure long marches, desperate skirmishes and the chaos of a battle that will reshape the war.

This short modern thriller steps away from Jecks’s medieval world to follow a single dangerous idea and the people willing to kill for it. In a tight, fast-paced story, one man’s attempt to do the right thing pulls him into a spiral of threat and moral doubt.

An ancient statue of the Virgin Mary, carved from pagan stone, exercises a strange and malevolent power. The Medieval Murderers trace the icon's journey across centuries, where religious devotion twists into obsession, heresy, and bloodshed.

In 1291, teenage Baldwin de Furnshill arrives in the last Crusader stronghold of Acre hoping to outrun a troubled past. As Muslim forces close in and the city braces for its final siege, he is thrown into brutal street fighting, betrayal and sacrifice in the battle that will shape the rest of his life.

A play depicting the biblical first murder of Abel by Cain carries a dark legacy. As the script surfaces in different eras—from a medieval mystery play to a Restoration drama—life begins to imitate art, and murder follows the actors who perform it.

This collection gathers Michael Jecks’s shorter fiction, from medieval mysteries featuring familiar series characters to stand-alone tales of crime, superstition and justice. Each story offers a compact, atmospheric slice of his world, showing how small choices can lead to deadly consequences.

When the imprisoned Edward II escapes from under their noses, Baldwin and Simon race to Exeter with the disastrous news. Inside the walled city a young woman is found murdered, and with the gates closed against outside unrest, Baldwin must find her killer in a place where every citizen hides a secret.

At the end of 1326 London burns, Edward II sits in captivity and Queen Isabella and Mortimer are triumphant. The powerful Bardi banking family, who funded the old king, scramble to survive, while Baldwin and Simon, guarding their deposed monarch, are drawn into lethal conspiracies over hidden treasure and shifting loyalties.

Solsbury Hill has been a place of death and ritual since ancient times. This collection follows the hill's dark history through the ages, from pagan sacrifices to medieval crimes, as the spirits of the past continue to haunt the living.

A meteorite falls in Greenland and is fashioned into a stone with reputed healing powers. But greed and violence follow the artifact as it travels to medieval Exeter and beyond, bringing misfortune rather than miracles to those who possess it.

In an England split between Edward II and the rising power of Isabella and Mortimer, a Devon family is found butchered in their own home. Ordered by Mortimer to investigate, Simon is pulled into a web of local vengeance and national politics where every sworn oath can be twisted.

As Queen Isabella flaunts her alliance with Roger Mortimer in France and England fears invasion, Bishop Stapledon, the king’s treasurer, receives chilling death threats. Summoned to London, Baldwin and Simon must identify the would‑be assassin and protect a man with many enemies while the kingdom edges toward open conflict.

After carrying unwelcome news that Queen Isabella refuses to return from France, Baldwin and Simon are dismissed from court and ride home to Devon. There they find the countryside terrorised by organised outlaws, and when an entire party of travellers is massacred, they confront an enemy whose royal connections make justice perilous.

In 1191, monks at Glastonbury Abbey claim to have found the bones of King Arthur. But are they real, or a political fabrication? This linked narrative follows the secret of the bones through the ages, as guardians protect them from those who would use the legend for power.

Stripped of influence at Westminster, Queen Isabella is sent to France to negotiate with her brother, and Baldwin and Simon must join her escort. When a French magnate is stabbed and Baldwin is framed, he must untangle espionage, blackmail and divided loyalties to save both himself and the English mission.

Baldwin and Simon return from France with an urgent message for Edward II, only to be drawn straight back into court intrigue. As prophecies about holy oil and a destined king swirl around Westminster, they must uncover a deadly plot aimed at reshaping the future of the crown.

A mysterious book of prophecies written by a 6th-century Irish monk is said to predict everything from the Black Death to the Gunpowder Plot. As the manuscript passes through history, it leaves a trail of madness and death for anyone who tries to decipher its secrets.

In 1325 Paris, Baldwin and Simon accompany Prince Edward and Bishop Walter into a city thick with spies and professional criminals. A series of killings pulls them into the orbit of Paris’s feared king of thieves, where they must stop an assassination plot that could plunge England into chaos.

A royal messenger is slain carrying a dangerous secret, and rumours spread of a sorcerer hired to kill the king by magic. In crowded, suspicious Exeter, Baldwin, Simon and a hard-drinking coroner pick their way through assassins, fortune-tellers and political schemers to stop further deaths.

Bermondsey Priory is cursed after a young chaplain is punished for sins of the flesh in 1114. Over the next five centuries, the priory becomes a backdrop for murder, ghosts, and political intrigue, as recorded in this series of interlinked tales by the Medieval Murderers group.

In 1325, under the unpredictable rule of Edward II and his favourite Hugh Despenser, the queen’s lady-in-waiting is murdered and a mutilated body is found behind the throne. Baldwin is summoned to investigate within a court where torture and blackmail are normal tools, and a wrong move could cost him his life.

Near Dartmouth, a corpse in the road is dismissed as the result of drunken misfortune just as a ship ravaged by pirates is found at sea. Baldwin and Simon must learn whether the two events are linked to spies carrying messages to the traitor Roger Mortimer and a looming civil war.

A Saxon sword forged before the Norman Conquest brings betrayal and death to all who wield it. From the battlefields of the 14th century to political scandals in Venice, this collection of linked mysteries follows the cursed blade's journey through the hands of knights, rebels, and murderers.

A fragment of the True Cross, supposedly stained with the blood of Christ, carries a deadly curse. This collaborative novel traces the relic's bloody path from Jerusalem in 1100 through centuries of English history, as different sleuths encounter the cursed object and the violence that follows it.

A strange figure obsessed with children prowls Exeter’s streets at night, slipping into houses and terrifying families. After a father is slaughtered defending his own, Baldwin suspects more than a lone madman, and his search through the city’s criminal underworld reveals a killer who is far from finished.

Simon’s servant Hugh is granted treasured leave to visit his wife and son, only for their cottage to be burned and the bodies hurriedly buried. The neat story of an accident does not convince Baldwin and Simon, whose investigation uncovers arson, revenge and a string of killings rooted in an old quarrel.

In the Cornish village of Cardinham, a destitute woman is found hanged beside the bodies of her children, and the tragedy is blamed on despair. Passing through on their journey home, Baldwin and Simon suspect murder and uncover land disputes, old betrayals and a killer hiding behind a tale of sorrow.

Exeter’s cathedral close still remembers an ambush and massacre that stained it with blood forty years earlier. When a hated merchant is killed and links emerge to that old crime, Baldwin and Simon must uncover how past guilt and a grim ossuary chapel have shaped fresh violence.

Granted leave to make pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Baldwin hopes for reflection rather than bloodshed. When a beautiful young woman is found murdered on a Spanish hillside, he and Simon lend their skills to the inquiry and soon discover that old enemies and fresh dangers travel even on holy roads.

Shipwrecked after pirates attack their vessel off the Scilly Isles, Baldwin and Simon are separated and each believes the other dead. On different islands they investigate the same killing from opposite sides, revealing local feuds, smuggling and desperate outlaws who threaten to turn the tiny community into a battlefield.

At Gidleigh, a young priest sent to serve a small chapel falls in love with a miller’s daughter, who is later found brutally stabbed beside the road. Branded a killer and on the run, he forces Baldwin and Simon to unravel twisted family loyalties and simmering resentments inside the local lord’s hall.

A local legend tells of a young monk lured to his death on the Abbot’s Way after stealing his abbot’s wine. In 1322, an empty barrel and a fresh corpse on the moor suggest the tale is coming to life again, and Baldwin and Simon must separate folklore from a very real murderer.

As knights across Devon prepare for a grand tournament, moneylender Benjamin Dudenay is found beaten to death, followed quickly by a murdered carpenter hired to build the stands. Baldwin and Simon must work fast amid debts, pride and jousting rivalries to stop a killer using the festivities as cover.

Two children discover the bones of a girl who vanished six years earlier, and Baldwin and Simon soon learn she was not the only young victim. In the fearful village of Sticklepath, talk of cannibalism and vampires hides a much more human predator who has killed with impunity.

During the Feast of St Giles, a condemned killer claims sanctuary and is ordered to leave England, only to be found decapitated on the road. When a knight lies dead nearby, Baldwin and Simon suspect a link between the murders and a treacherous game being played among the gentry.

Christmas in Exeter should bring honour to Baldwin and Simon, who are to receive ceremonial gloves from the cathedral’s Boy-Bishop. Instead they find the glovemaker stabbed and a young cleric poisoned, drawing them into city rivalries where respectable citizens hide lethal secrets.

In 1320 Crediton, a goldsmith is murdered and his daughter attacked, shocking a town already on edge. As fear and loathing focus on the nearby leper hospital, Baldwin and Simon race to stop a wave of persecution while tracking the killer who is using hatred as cover.

When Squire Roger of Throwleigh dies, his five-year-old son Herbert inherits the estate and his mother’s bitter blame. Days later the boy is supposedly killed in a cart accident. Certain the child was targeted, Baldwin and Simon uncover dangerous ambitions circling the new heir’s wealth.

St Mary’s Priory on Dartmoor seethes with gossip and faction as its prioress is accused of misusing funds and breaking her vows. After nuns are found dead, Baldwin and Simon must navigate broken obedience, illicit affairs and church politics to reveal who is killing within the cloister.

As Crediton prepares for a prestigious visit from the Bishop of Exeter, a band of mercenary soldiers brings extra tension to the town. When a young girl’s body is discovered hidden in a chest, Baldwin and Simon are pulled into a chain of increasingly brutal killings that terrorise the community.

At Tavistock’s famous fair a butcher stumbles on a headless corpse, and no one can say who the victim was. With the abbey and town awash in rumour and visiting strangers, Baldwin and Simon must trace a nameless dead man through a web of rivalries and greed.

Runaway serf Peter Bruther thinks he has gained freedom by joining the protected tin miners on Dartmoor. When he is found hanging from a tree, Baldwin and Simon must untangle landlord fury, miners’ rackets and the threat of revolt to uncover who wanted him silenced.

Midwife and healer Agatha Kyteler, long whispered about as a witch, is found mutilated in a frozen hedge, and a village youth flees in panic. Baldwin doubts the easy verdict and, with Simon Puttock, must probe jealousy, superstition and buried grudges before another innocent is destroyed.

In 1316 Devon, a burned-out cottage hides a murdered corpse, and new bailiff Simon Puttock quickly clashes with enigmatic ex-Templar Baldwin Furnshill, who insists the death was no accident. Their first joint investigation digs up village secrets, church politics and the brutal legacy of the destroyed Templar order.