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Knights Templar #22
The Malice of Unnatural Death
1324. The kingdom is in an uproar. Roger Mortimer—once the king's most able commander, now his most hated enemy—has escaped from the Tower and hired an assassin to murder the monarch. Others have the same idea. In Coventry, a special assassin has been hired: a necromancer by the name of John. But just as his plan begins to succeed, the plot is uncovered. John must escape to a smaller city: Exeter. And when the bodies of a local craftsman and the king's messenger are found in Exeter's streets, Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock, are asked by the Bishop to find the murderer. The dead messenger was carrying a dangerous secret, and the Bishop is desperate that it not be discovered. Baldwin and Simon are reluctant to get involved, but political pressures are growing, and the two must find the murderer before he strikes again. But when murderers use magic, no one is safe.
544 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
About the author
Michael Jecks
147 books627 followersMichael Jecks is a best-selling writer of historical novels. The son of an Actuary, and the youngest of four brothers, he worked in the computer industry before becoming a novelist full time in 1994
He is the author of the internationally popular Templar series, perhaps the longest crime series written by a living author. Unusually, the series looks again at actual events and murders committed about the early fourteenth century, a fabulous time of treachery, civil war, deceit and corruption. Famine, war and disease led to widespread despair, and yet the people showed themselves to be resilient. The series is available as ebooks and all paper formats from Harper Collins, Headline and Simon and Schuster. More recently he has completed his Vintener Trilogy, three stories in his Bloody Mary series, and a new Crusades story set in 1096, Pilgrim's War, following some of the people in the first Crusade on their long pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He has also written a highly acclaimed modern spy thriller, Act of Vengeance.
His books have won him international acclaim and in 2007 his Death Ship of Dartmouth was shortlisted for the Harrogate prize for the best crime novel of the year.
A member of the Society of Authors and Royal Literary Society, Jecks was the Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association in 2004-2005. In 2005 he became a member of the Detection Club.
From 1998 he organised the CWA Debut Dagger competition for two years, helping unpublished authors to win their first contracts He judged the CWA/Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for three years.
Michael Jecks is a popular speaker at literary festivals and historical meetings. He is a popular after-dinner and motivational speaker and has spoken at events from Colombia to Italy, Portugal to Alaska.
His own highlights are: being the Grand Marshal of the first parade at the New Orleans 2014 Mardi Gras, designing the Michael Jecks fountain pen for Conway Stewart, and being the International Guest of Honour at the Crime Writers of Canada Bloody Words convention.
Michael lives, walks, writes and paints in North Dartmoor.
He is the author of the internationally popular Templar series, perhaps the longest crime series written by a living author. Unusually, the series looks again at actual events and murders committed about the early fourteenth century, a fabulous time of treachery, civil war, deceit and corruption. Famine, war and disease led to widespread despair, and yet the people showed themselves to be resilient. The series is available as ebooks and all paper formats from Harper Collins, Headline and Simon and Schuster. More recently he has completed his Vintener Trilogy, three stories in his Bloody Mary series, and a new Crusades story set in 1096, Pilgrim's War, following some of the people in the first Crusade on their long pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He has also written a highly acclaimed modern spy thriller, Act of Vengeance.
His books have won him international acclaim and in 2007 his Death Ship of Dartmouth was shortlisted for the Harrogate prize for the best crime novel of the year.
A member of the Society of Authors and Royal Literary Society, Jecks was the Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association in 2004-2005. In 2005 he became a member of the Detection Club.
From 1998 he organised the CWA Debut Dagger competition for two years, helping unpublished authors to win their first contracts He judged the CWA/Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for three years.
Michael Jecks is a popular speaker at literary festivals and historical meetings. He is a popular after-dinner and motivational speaker and has spoken at events from Colombia to Italy, Portugal to Alaska.
His own highlights are: being the Grand Marshal of the first parade at the New Orleans 2014 Mardi Gras, designing the Michael Jecks fountain pen for Conway Stewart, and being the International Guest of Honour at the Crime Writers of Canada Bloody Words convention.
Michael lives, walks, writes and paints in North Dartmoor.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 6, 2022
April 27, 1324; Robert le Mareschal is studying necromancy under John of Nottingham, well known and feared by even the most powerful. Robert is in a plot to murder a number of people from afar, so a practice death has to be made to prove it can be done. At the necromancer's instruction he sticks a hot metal pin into a wax effigy. Then he leaves and walks by the house of the victim to find it in an uproar and the knight inside writhing in agony, clearly dying in pain. It works, but Mareschal is also horrified. Now he can finish what he and several others have set out to do using the other wax figures, one of which is wearing a crown!
This book takes place during the reign of King Edward II, admittedly the worst English King since King John. The rapacious and deadly Dispensers, father and son, are the King's favorites and rule in all but name. What they want, they take and they don't care who they ruin in the taking. They have even turned the King against his wife, sister of the King of France.
Simon Puttock, formerly stannary bailiff and now appointed head of customs in Dartmouth, has been called home to Tavistock to the Abbey. Abbot Robert is dying and two men are already fighting for the post of abbot; Brother John Busse, and Brother John de Courtenay. Brother John de Courtney is the son of a Baron and thinks he should have the post based on his nobility. Brother John Busse is from humbler background but is more able.
Will Skinner, watchman at the South Gate of Exeter City, finds a body in an alleyway and puts out the hue and cry. The next day as his friend Thomas guards the body awaiting the Coroner to arrive and call the Inquest, he finds another body in a different alley as a pig tries to eat the hand. Significantly, this body is dressed in the livery of a King's Messenger! Will, the watchman who found both bodies is a retired King's Messenger.
Sir Baldwin de Furnshill is one of the very few Knights Templar to have survived the clutches of the evil King of France on that fateful Friday the Thirteenth when the world ended for the most powerful brotherhood in the world. Fleeing to his native England he finds that his elder brother had recently died and he is now the heir of his title and lands. Since it was not generally known that Baldwin was a Templar he was able to spin a story that he was on Crusade in the Holy Land and just back. He soon becomes known for his ability to solve even the most difficult murder becomming a Keeper of the King's Peace, and with his friend Simon Puttock becomes a force for justice in a dangerous time.
Now Baldwin has been summoned to Exeter by Walter Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, and Lord High Treasurer to King Edward, who wants him to attend the next session of Parliament as a voice of reason - clearly a possibility dangerous thing for Baldwin to do. Baldwin is determined not to leave his heavily pregnant wife, and young child, and enter into the world of politics and kings. While in Exeter he runs into Simon and gets pulled into the strange investigation of the murders.
So begins the complex story of the hunt for the killers; and complex it is as the coincidences can't be ignored and the death toll mounts. There are twists, turns, characters, and killers that seem to be unrelated, but are not. Just when you think Sir Baldwin, Bailiff Puttock, and Coroner Sir Richard de Welles are close, another body turns up, the suspects seem to have an alibi, and they are back where they started. Even though we readers know more than the main characters about who the villains are and their motivations, we still don't really get the whole pocture until the end, and when it comes in a conclusion true to the turbulent times in which the story is set. Some get justice and some don't get the justice they deserve.
Jecks is a master storyteller. He understands the complex history of the time period in England, and though this is a work of fiction, the facts behind it are very accurate. He does provide a Cast of Characters, and a Glossary at the beginning which are both helpful for keeping straight who is who. I kept a bookmark there for quick access.
I just love Michael Jecks books. I have read most of them and they never disappoint. I highly recommend them. So put on some Medieval music, sit back, and enjoy.
This book takes place during the reign of King Edward II, admittedly the worst English King since King John. The rapacious and deadly Dispensers, father and son, are the King's favorites and rule in all but name. What they want, they take and they don't care who they ruin in the taking. They have even turned the King against his wife, sister of the King of France.
Simon Puttock, formerly stannary bailiff and now appointed head of customs in Dartmouth, has been called home to Tavistock to the Abbey. Abbot Robert is dying and two men are already fighting for the post of abbot; Brother John Busse, and Brother John de Courtenay. Brother John de Courtney is the son of a Baron and thinks he should have the post based on his nobility. Brother John Busse is from humbler background but is more able.
Will Skinner, watchman at the South Gate of Exeter City, finds a body in an alleyway and puts out the hue and cry. The next day as his friend Thomas guards the body awaiting the Coroner to arrive and call the Inquest, he finds another body in a different alley as a pig tries to eat the hand. Significantly, this body is dressed in the livery of a King's Messenger! Will, the watchman who found both bodies is a retired King's Messenger.
Sir Baldwin de Furnshill is one of the very few Knights Templar to have survived the clutches of the evil King of France on that fateful Friday the Thirteenth when the world ended for the most powerful brotherhood in the world. Fleeing to his native England he finds that his elder brother had recently died and he is now the heir of his title and lands. Since it was not generally known that Baldwin was a Templar he was able to spin a story that he was on Crusade in the Holy Land and just back. He soon becomes known for his ability to solve even the most difficult murder becomming a Keeper of the King's Peace, and with his friend Simon Puttock becomes a force for justice in a dangerous time.
Now Baldwin has been summoned to Exeter by Walter Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, and Lord High Treasurer to King Edward, who wants him to attend the next session of Parliament as a voice of reason - clearly a possibility dangerous thing for Baldwin to do. Baldwin is determined not to leave his heavily pregnant wife, and young child, and enter into the world of politics and kings. While in Exeter he runs into Simon and gets pulled into the strange investigation of the murders.
So begins the complex story of the hunt for the killers; and complex it is as the coincidences can't be ignored and the death toll mounts. There are twists, turns, characters, and killers that seem to be unrelated, but are not. Just when you think Sir Baldwin, Bailiff Puttock, and Coroner Sir Richard de Welles are close, another body turns up, the suspects seem to have an alibi, and they are back where they started. Even though we readers know more than the main characters about who the villains are and their motivations, we still don't really get the whole pocture until the end, and when it comes in a conclusion true to the turbulent times in which the story is set. Some get justice and some don't get the justice they deserve.
Jecks is a master storyteller. He understands the complex history of the time period in England, and though this is a work of fiction, the facts behind it are very accurate. He does provide a Cast of Characters, and a Glossary at the beginning which are both helpful for keeping straight who is who. I kept a bookmark there for quick access.
I just love Michael Jecks books. I have read most of them and they never disappoint. I highly recommend them. So put on some Medieval music, sit back, and enjoy.
May 10, 2020
It is 1254 and Edward II has given cause to powerful people to want to assassinate him, along with some of his most hated and corrupt close associates. One group in particular has resorted to necromancy to accomplish their goal, but the plot is temporarily thwarted.
It remains to be seen if conjurer John of Nottingham will be able to do the deed, or if a traditional assassin will use a blade, or if none will succeed in dispatching the king.
The beginning was confusing with the introduction of a number of characters and locations, and switching back and forth among them. Eventually, clarity prevailed and the plot took off. The many surprising twists and turns made this an engrossing page turner.
Can't wait to read more of this series.
It remains to be seen if conjurer John of Nottingham will be able to do the deed, or if a traditional assassin will use a blade, or if none will succeed in dispatching the king.
The beginning was confusing with the introduction of a number of characters and locations, and switching back and forth among them. Eventually, clarity prevailed and the plot took off. The many surprising twists and turns made this an engrossing page turner.
Can't wait to read more of this series.
January 10, 2021
I'm very glad I didn't live in the 1300; life was clearly awful. This is a historical mystery novel, with the victim carrying an important document from the king that bears a dangerous message. Oddly, the book is said to be a Knights Templar mystery, but the Knights have very little part. Perhaps they appear at greater length in other books in this series. You will learn a great deal about the past while being entertained by the story.
April 18, 2022
I'm getting tired of the way women are portrayed in this series.
They're either insane, slutty, or wizened old crones. The only women ever given anything substantial to say or do are Baldwin and Simon's wives, and they haven't been main characters for a long while.
I'm giving this series one more book, and if things don't improve characterwise, I think I'm done, which is a shame because the early books were very good.
They're either insane, slutty, or wizened old crones. The only women ever given anything substantial to say or do are Baldwin and Simon's wives, and they haven't been main characters for a long while.
I'm giving this series one more book, and if things don't improve characterwise, I think I'm done, which is a shame because the early books were very good.
August 26, 2022
Not really my cup of tea, but I needed a book, and had to settle for ayya's choices.
One of those medieval mystery stories set in the filthy, crowded, unsanitary towns of middle age England, the plot is clever enough, when taken as a whole.
However, the story is disjointed, and the delivery is far from perfect. Only the promising storyline and it's subplots kept me turning the pages.
Not a bad book, but probably wouldn't actively seek out another.
One of those medieval mystery stories set in the filthy, crowded, unsanitary towns of middle age England, the plot is clever enough, when taken as a whole.
However, the story is disjointed, and the delivery is far from perfect. Only the promising storyline and it's subplots kept me turning the pages.
Not a bad book, but probably wouldn't actively seek out another.
October 26, 2017
Having read all the templar books in order ai can honestly say that this is just about the best one so far
February 7, 2018
Full review at classicmystery.wordpress.com
February 19, 2020
Jecks' writing is improving. This story is very engaging, well plotted and has interesting characters.
March 5, 2020
I loved this one the most of all that he has written. It is apparent that he researched medieval necromancy very well.
July 29, 2016
Another of Jecks' better ones following a former Templar Knight Sir Baldwin and his friend Simon Puttockt. The author is learning to control the urge to create too many subplots--I don't mind something cleverly intricate, and this qualifies. (I fuss over those where he gets carried away and loses control of showing why or how it all was necessary or fit together.) As with many books today, he starts with the list of his characters (annoyingly, not all) at the front, which helps when he barrels on in the plot thinking we'll be able to sort out a series of minor but sometimes useful characters who unfortunately often sound the same when we get to hear them think or speak. With Jecks it sometimes functions as a bit of a crutch: you lean on it when you can't tell people apart or when he simply hasn't set up a reappearance with enough clues or context to jog your memory as to when or where you met them before. The books aren't that long! (No Game of Thrones or War and Peace density here.)
Having said all this, I enjoyed the relationship of the one-off characters who had served the king as messenger or assassin, the latest coroner once again (Sir Richard de Welles) and the use of John of Nottingham's attempt to kill the king and others by magical wax figures. As always, Jecks looks for an historical context for his plots, and faced with a gap with no major events between his last book and the next historical development of 1325, he usefully incorporated the magical threats to deepen the sense of paranoia and fear in England on all sides during the reign of Edward II and the Despensers.
And now I turn to a commentary on biased attitudes, so if that sort of thing isn't your cup of tea, stop reading here. Jecks also used a subplot about a maidservant who mistakenly believes her master loves her and will be rid of his wife so they can be married. On the face of it, a tale featuring a lower/working class female sounds like a good enrichment of the story. But this was badly done and clumsy, even though based on seeds of a real event. The poor girl sounded less mad/mentally ill/delusional and more like a bad (or teen magazine/emag?) romance stereotype. The need to be loved and to indulge in a fantasy that cures the parts of life you want to change are common hopes for teenagers but also not uncommon in adults.(Midlife crisis, anyone? Jecks in his intro also makes what I consider a rather stupid comment that suggests to me why this element of the book worked so poorly. He said he believes "young girls, young women, call them what you will, can occasionally form these intense bonds with the concept of a man or a future" (p.xvii) and adds that it is something he's "never seen in a male of a similar age. Perhaps it's a gender thing." Really? The story suffers from Jecks' blind spots about age and gender, and more egregiously, conflation of delusion/mental illness, something he's sympathetic about, with some imagined romantic predeliction of girls/women! We've never seen "young boys, young men, call them what you will" who are overly possessive or jealous, to a point where they become controlling or even violent? Who picture a future with a girl or dream of some macho act that will change her mind about him once and for all, and everything will fall into place? Sure, sometimes it's harmless, just as it is for females. But I see too many news stories the world over about males (and women, but I'm making a counterargument here) where the infatuation or delusion consists of a female that is "mine" even if she's an ex or someone never involved. Hinckley shot Reagan so Jodie Foster would love him, at age 26--but years before that, he wrote to his parents about a girlfriend who turns out never to have existed anywhere but in his head, and he was 21 when he first saw Foster in Taxi Driver. Unrequited longings are common to us all. Some people take them too far, and act on them. Mr. Jecks, some gender study and self-examination would do wonders, as would talking to troubled teens--For now, this episode badly weakened the overall book.
Having said all this, I enjoyed the relationship of the one-off characters who had served the king as messenger or assassin, the latest coroner once again (Sir Richard de Welles) and the use of John of Nottingham's attempt to kill the king and others by magical wax figures. As always, Jecks looks for an historical context for his plots, and faced with a gap with no major events between his last book and the next historical development of 1325, he usefully incorporated the magical threats to deepen the sense of paranoia and fear in England on all sides during the reign of Edward II and the Despensers.
And now I turn to a commentary on biased attitudes, so if that sort of thing isn't your cup of tea, stop reading here. Jecks also used a subplot about a maidservant who mistakenly believes her master loves her and will be rid of his wife so they can be married. On the face of it, a tale featuring a lower/working class female sounds like a good enrichment of the story. But this was badly done and clumsy, even though based on seeds of a real event. The poor girl sounded less mad/mentally ill/delusional and more like a bad (or teen magazine/emag?) romance stereotype. The need to be loved and to indulge in a fantasy that cures the parts of life you want to change are common hopes for teenagers but also not uncommon in adults.(Midlife crisis, anyone? Jecks in his intro also makes what I consider a rather stupid comment that suggests to me why this element of the book worked so poorly. He said he believes "young girls, young women, call them what you will, can occasionally form these intense bonds with the concept of a man or a future" (p.xvii) and adds that it is something he's "never seen in a male of a similar age. Perhaps it's a gender thing." Really? The story suffers from Jecks' blind spots about age and gender, and more egregiously, conflation of delusion/mental illness, something he's sympathetic about, with some imagined romantic predeliction of girls/women! We've never seen "young boys, young men, call them what you will" who are overly possessive or jealous, to a point where they become controlling or even violent? Who picture a future with a girl or dream of some macho act that will change her mind about him once and for all, and everything will fall into place? Sure, sometimes it's harmless, just as it is for females. But I see too many news stories the world over about males (and women, but I'm making a counterargument here) where the infatuation or delusion consists of a female that is "mine" even if she's an ex or someone never involved. Hinckley shot Reagan so Jodie Foster would love him, at age 26--but years before that, he wrote to his parents about a girlfriend who turns out never to have existed anywhere but in his head, and he was 21 when he first saw Foster in Taxi Driver. Unrequited longings are common to us all. Some people take them too far, and act on them. Mr. Jecks, some gender study and self-examination would do wonders, as would talking to troubled teens--For now, this episode badly weakened the overall book.
January 24, 2012
Well, if you like murders by necromancy, this is for you.
Again, this is a genuine case. There was an attempt to kill the King and his friends by use of sorcery. A known performer of the magical arts was hired to shape wax into the likeness of the King and the other victims, and to try to use sorcery to kill them. Of course, as soon as I heard of this, I was forced to start researching the history.
The court records exist still, and the story of John of Nottingham is there, if you wish to look. For me, it was just a fascinating insight into not only medieval times, but more recent ones too.
For we all know, don't we, that making wax idols and sticking pins in them comes from the Voodoo rites? Except they don't. Over-zealous missionaries trying to convert slaves to Christianity wanted funding to go and preach to the heathens, and needed to show how necessary was their task. They wanted money - so they began a campaign of disinformation, telling people in England how the heathens resorted to witchcraft and sorcery, even performing magic with waxen images, just like the witches were known to do across Europe!
Yes, the whole idea was a medieval one that was exported to Voodoo by missionaries!
Again, this is a genuine case. There was an attempt to kill the King and his friends by use of sorcery. A known performer of the magical arts was hired to shape wax into the likeness of the King and the other victims, and to try to use sorcery to kill them. Of course, as soon as I heard of this, I was forced to start researching the history.
The court records exist still, and the story of John of Nottingham is there, if you wish to look. For me, it was just a fascinating insight into not only medieval times, but more recent ones too.
For we all know, don't we, that making wax idols and sticking pins in them comes from the Voodoo rites? Except they don't. Over-zealous missionaries trying to convert slaves to Christianity wanted funding to go and preach to the heathens, and needed to show how necessary was their task. They wanted money - so they began a campaign of disinformation, telling people in England how the heathens resorted to witchcraft and sorcery, even performing magic with waxen images, just like the witches were known to do across Europe!
Yes, the whole idea was a medieval one that was exported to Voodoo by missionaries!
December 1, 2011
When I read books, I tend to check the reviews on Goodreads to see what other people have said about a book. I don't really base my opinions on their thoughts, but I like to know the overall consensus of something. Especially the 22nd book in a series I have never read before and is totally outside my normal range of reading material.
Read the rest of the review here: http://antiquestar.blogspot.com/2012/...
Read the rest of the review here: http://antiquestar.blogspot.com/2012/...
August 1, 2012
Two dimensional characters, and so many of them that it was almost impossible to work out who I was reading about. If this is the 22nd book in an apparently popular series, perhaps I should give the dude the benefit of the doubt and say that he's become lazy. But since I've never read any of the other books and now have no intention of doing so, I figure I'll never be able to say. Quelle surprise that it was in the library clearance bin.
Want to Read
July 15, 2013I have read and enjoyed other books in this series, but I just don't seem to have long enough blocks of time to read this successfully. The book itself has a huge cast of characters and is written in little snippets that jumps from character to character and plot to subplot. Combined with my picking it up for only a few minutes here and there and the whole thing is a chopped up mess. Just not enjoying it. Maybe I will try to read it another time.
November 21, 2014
Set in 1300s England its a mystery involving a plot to kill the king and his advisors using a necromancer to do the job. In the town of Exeter a number of bodies have been turning up and the coroner and Kings Keeper of the Peace are trying to find the killer or killers.
The setting is interesting and well described, and although I find I had a little keeping all the characters straight I enjoyed the book.
The setting is interesting and well described, and although I find I had a little keeping all the characters straight I enjoyed the book.
January 29, 2020
The Malice of Unnatural Death is another of Michael Jecks’ Medieval whodunnits in which Simon, Baldwin and Coroner Richard track down a necromancer bent on killing King Edward II and his aggrandizing supporters the Dispensers. Best so far in the series.
August 4, 2009
I loved this book the plot was devious and brilliantly written so many little sub plots to fool the reader.
Read it and you will not be sorry.
Read it and you will not be sorry.
July 18, 2011
i enjoy mysteries and this book from my perspective is very good.
April 27, 2009
book 22
Read
January 9, 2018Good read
Always fascinating, Baldwin and Simon never disappoint. I have to be careful to keep in sequence. The actions bring everything as if l am watching the actions on film. Excellent!
Always fascinating, Baldwin and Simon never disappoint. I have to be careful to keep in sequence. The actions bring everything as if l am watching the actions on film. Excellent!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews