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Bailiff Simon Puttock of Lydford and Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace, member of the once-powerful, now-destroyed, Order of the Knights Templar (The Mad Monk of Gidleigh, p. 575, etc.), make a pilgrimage south and discover that 14th-century vice flourishes just as strongly in Spain. Once they're settled in the home of elected investigator Munio in Santiago de Compestela, they're soon apprised of a series of crimes confounding their host. One outrage focuses on Prioress Dona Stephania of the convent at nearby Vigo. Now divorced from Gregory, her husband, and living in Compestela, she is being blackmailed on the basis of a one-time sexual indiscretion. When her faithful maid Joana volunteers to meet the blackmailer and make the payoff, both she and the money vanish. Her brutally raped and beaten body is found soon after, but not the payment. Her murder is but one in a series of puzzles for the doughty pair. Among the others is the killing of Matthew, a Knight Templar turned street beggar. The rash of felonies is enough to make Simon seriously ill. While he's nursed back to health by Munio's English-born wife Margarita, Baldwin sails to Portugal in pursuit of the man he thinks is Joana's killer. An overpopulated, overplotted saga: not one of Jecks's stronger efforts. (Kirkus Reviews)

The 15th tale in Jecks's mediaeval mystery series moves from the brooding tors of Dartmoor to the sunlit uplands of Portugal. Ex-Knight Templar Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock have been given special consent to go on pilgrimage, but it is a journey that takes them into many dangers. When the raped and broken body of a young girl is found on a remote hillside not long after their arrival, it seems the only question is who did it. The reality is or course far more complex, especially when Baldwin is confronted by a character from his past who threatens to do far more than disrupt the murder investigation. In typical Jecks fashion the plot unfolds in many dark ways, bringing Baldwin and Simon to the verge of calamity. As well as attempting to untangle a mystery far deeper than it first appears, they also have to contend with political unrest, an outbreak of thuggery against pilgrims, and the outlaws who in 1323 infest the Iberian countryside unchecked. As always, Jecks is deft at creating atmosphere and as a historian who specializes in the period all his details are spot on. The colourful but frequently brutal scenes of mediaeval life in Europe are powerfully drawn, and sometimes there is little distinction between the heroes and villains. Most intriguing are the methods by which Baldwin uses his detection skills in an age when those who asked too many questions often found themselves eliminated pretty swiftly from the inquiry. The perennial difficulty of handling dialogue without making it appear too archaic or absurdly 21st-century colloquial is as always handled with prime skill. In Jecks's hands, the reader is taken back nearly 800 years and feels throughout a part of that perilous past. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Michael Jecks gave up a career in the computer industry to concentrate on writing and the study of medieval history, especially that of Devon and Cornwall. He lives with his family in northern Dartmoor.

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