Roger The Chapman Books in Order
Part ofKate Sedley Books in OrderSee the Roger The Chapman books in order by Kate Sedley, with short summaries, reading order, series background, and help choosing where to start.
Last updated: July 11, 2026
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Roger The Chapman books in publication order
22 books
Death and the Chapman
by Kate Sedley
1991
Newly free of monastic life, Roger the Chapman is asked to find a Bristol alderman's missing son in London. The search becomes his first full brush with murder, politics, and the dangerous uses of curiosity.
The Plymouth Cloak
by Kate Sedley
1992
Roger is ordered to protect a royal messenger carrying an urgent dispatch toward Plymouth. When the man is murdered with Roger's own cudgel, Roger must clear himself and finish the mission.
The Hanged Man / The Weaver's Tale
by Kate Sedley
1993
Struck down by illness in Bristol, Roger is nursed by a widow and her daughter, then drawn into their family mystery. A man was hanged for murder, yet the supposed victim later walked back into town.
The Holy Innocents
by Kate Sedley
1994
Outlaws are terrorizing the countryside around Totnes, and two children have disappeared without anyone seeing them leave home. Roger cannot let the mystery rest, especially once it turns darker than anyone feared.
The Eve of Saint Hyacinth
by Kate Sedley
1995
Roger comes to London hoping for rest, then stumbles over a dead spy and a plot against Richard of Gloucester. To stop the conspiracy, he must work fast in a city full of rumor and divided loyalties.
The Wicked Winter
by Kate Sedley
1995
Winter weather traps Roger at an isolated manor where fear, gossip, and unhappy attachments are already running high. When death strikes, the snowbound household becomes a closed circle of suspects.
The Brothers of Glastonbury
by Kate Sedley
1997
Roger escorts a young bride to Glastonbury, only to find her intended husband has vanished. Manuscripts, rumor, and local legend turn the search into a strange and dangerous puzzle.
The Weaver's Inheritance
by Kate Sedley
1998
A wealthy Bristol weaver welcomes home the son long thought dead, but his daughter is sure the young man is an impostor. Roger's search for the truth leads from family grief to a carefully built deception.
The Saint John's Fern
by Kate Sedley
1999
Recently remarried Roger feels the road calling again and heads for Plymouth, where an old tradesman has been murdered. Superstition says the chief suspect vanished through the magic of Saint John's fern, Roger looks for a human answer.
The Goldsmith's Daughter
by Kate Sedley
2001
Richard of Gloucester needs Roger to clear Isolda Bonifant, a goldsmith's daughter accused of poisoning her husband. The case looks domestic at first, but its outcome could shift loyalties at the center of power.
The Lammas Feast
by Kate Sedley
2002
A Bristol baker is found stabbed just before Lammas, and suspicion quickly falls on a mysterious Breton stranger. Roger suspects the murder charge may be covering something larger, and soon his own family is at risk.
Nine Men Dancing
by Kate Sedley
2003
Heading home in the winter of 1478, Roger pauses in a village haunted by the disappearance of a young woman. The longer he stays, the more he finds old scandals, fresh lies, and danger close at hand.
The Midsummer Rose
by Kate Sedley
2004
Roger laughs off ghost stories until he is attacked in a house tied to an old killing. With the whole town denying what happened, he must decide whether someone is lying to him, or he is losing his senses.
The Burgundian's Tale
by Kate Sedley
2005
Trouble at home gives Roger little reason to refuse a summons to London. There he must solve the murder of a favored attendant's son during the Duchess of Burgundy's high-profile visit to court.
The Prodigal Son
by Kate Sedley
2005
Roger's newly discovered half-brother is accused of an old theft and murder, sending Roger to a Somerset manor in search of the truth. Then a long-missing heir returns and is promptly killed.
The Three Kings of Cologne
by Kate Sedley
2007
When the remains of a woman missing for twenty years are found on nunnery land, Roger must trace the three secret lovers she left behind. The case is cold, but the old passions around it are not.
The Green Man
by Kate Sedley
2008
Roger is swept into the 1482 invasion of Scotland when the Duke of Albany insists on having him nearby. Strange Green Man rumors, political intrigue, and murder make the march north more dangerous than battle.
The Dance of Death
by Kate Sedley
2009
Roger is ordered on an undercover mission to Paris, posing as the husband of the difficult Eloise Gray. What begins as intelligence work soon turns into a deadly tangle of diplomacy, deception, and murder.
Wheel of Fate
by Kate Sedley
2010
Called to London after scandal rocks his home, Roger looks into a family's string of deaths, poisoning, and disappearance. The case opens onto hidden grudges and dangerous secrets at a tense political moment.
The Midsummer Crown
by Kate Sedley
2011
As Richard of Gloucester moves toward the English crown in 1483, Roger is sent to investigate a missing boy and a tutor found murdered in a locked room. Old legend and present danger prove tightly linked.
The Tintern Treasure
by Kate Sedley
2012
On an errand to Hereford during Buckingham's rebellion, Roger takes refuge at Tintern Abbey and hears of an old hiding place. Back in Bristol, murder and robberies reveal that the past has not stayed buried.
The Christmas Wassail
by Kate Sedley
2013
Christmas 1483 should bring Roger Chapman nothing more dangerous than feasting and mummers in Bristol. Instead, the murders of two respected old soldiers drag him into another bitter, risky hunt for a killer.
Roger The Chapman books in chronological order

Death and the Chapman
by Kate Sedley
1991Roger The Chapman, Book 1
The Plymouth Cloak
by Kate Sedley
1992Roger The Chapman, Book 2
The Hanged Man / The Weaver's Tale
by Kate Sedley
1993Roger The Chapman, Book 3
The Holy Innocents
by Kate Sedley
1994Roger The Chapman, Book 4
The Eve of Saint Hyacinth
by Kate Sedley
1995Roger The Chapman, Book 5
The Wicked Winter
by Kate Sedley
1995Roger The Chapman, Book 6
The Brothers of Glastonbury
by Kate Sedley
1997Roger The Chapman, Book 7
The Weaver's Inheritance
by Kate Sedley
1998Roger The Chapman, Book 8
The Saint John's Fern
by Kate Sedley
1999Roger The Chapman, Book 9
The Goldsmith's Daughter
by Kate Sedley
2001Roger The Chapman, Book 10
The Lammas Feast
by Kate Sedley
2002Roger The Chapman, Book 11
Nine Men Dancing
by Kate Sedley
2003Roger The Chapman, Book 12
The Midsummer Rose
by Kate Sedley
2004Roger The Chapman, Book 13
The Burgundian's Tale
by Kate Sedley
2005Roger The Chapman, Book 14
The Prodigal Son
by Kate Sedley
2005Roger The Chapman, Book 15
The Three Kings of Cologne
by Kate Sedley
2007Roger The Chapman, Book 16
The Green Man
by Kate Sedley
2008Roger The Chapman, Book 17
The Dance of Death
by Kate Sedley
2009Roger The Chapman, Book 18
Wheel of Fate
by Kate Sedley
2010Roger The Chapman, Book 19
The Midsummer Crown
by Kate Sedley
2011Roger The Chapman, Book 20
The Tintern Treasure
by Kate Sedley
2012Roger The Chapman, Book 21
The Christmas Wassail
by Kate Sedley
2013Roger The Chapman, Book 22
Series background & context
Roger the Chapman is the heart of Kate Sedley's best-known series, and he is a little different from the usual medieval sleuth. When the books begin with Death and the Chapman, Roger has recently left monastic life behind and taken to the road as a chapman, or peddler. He wants freedom, honest work, and a chance to make his own living. What he keeps getting instead is murder, disappearance, and other people's trouble.
That setup gives the series its shape.
Roger moves through fifteenth-century England on foot, pack on back, sleeping in inns, visiting markets, and hearing the sort of gossip no courtier ever would. Because he is neither nobleman nor peasant, he can cross boundaries that other characters cannot. One week he is in Bristol or Totnes, the next he is in London, Plymouth, Glastonbury, Scotland, or even France, asking questions in kitchens, workshops, manor houses, and abbeys.
The books are set against the long aftershocks of the Wars of the Roses, so national politics are never far away. Roger sometimes gets drawn into the orbit of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, whose requests in books like The Plymouth Cloak, The Eve of Saint Hyacinth, and The Midsummer Crown pull him toward spy work and dangerous court business. But the stories stay grounded in smaller human stakes too, missing children, disputed inheritances, bad marriages, old grudges, and families trying to keep secrets from one another.
Sedley is especially good at the ordinary side of the medieval world. Food, weather, trade, superstition, travel, and household routines all matter here. A title like The Holy Innocents carries fear and grief through a whole town. The Brothers of Glastonbury mixes local legend with missing persons and manuscripts. The Lammas Feast and The Christmas Wassail show how feast days and seasonal customs can sit right beside suspicion and violence.
Roger himself changes as the series goes on.
He starts as a restless young man who trusts his instincts and keeps moving. Later books give him marriages, children, money worries, and a stronger attachment to Bristol, which makes every journey away from home cost a little more. That domestic thread helps the series feel cumulative. The mysteries stand alone, but Roger's life keeps moving forward.
If you like historical mysteries that care as much about place and everyday life as they do about clues, this series does that very well. The tone is thoughtful rather than flashy. Roger is observant, stubborn, and humane, and he never quite loses the sense that the road can open into danger at any turn. That mix of travel, history, family life, and puzzle-solving is what gives the series its staying power.
Edited by
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