Customer Reviews

The Death Ship of Dartmouth (Knights Templar)

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Michael Jecks gave up a career in the computer industry when he began writing the internationally successful Templar series. Well all I can say is the Computer Industries loss is the reader's gain. He has now written about a score of the Knights Templar mystery books featuring Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock and there are more to follow. Michael's books are full of intrigue and mystery and they are particularly well researched. Mr. Jecks lives in the area he writes about and I am sure this must assist him a great deal with his background research.

This book as with most of Mr. Jecks other novels in the series takes place in Devon, barely two years before the infamous Despenser's were brought to summary justice.


The small haven of Dartmouth lies on the mouth of the river Dart, hence its name. The townsfolk are well used fights and scuffles among the sailors who come ashore to spend their hard earned pay. When a body is found lying in the middle of the road it is assumed that he has probably had too much to drink and fallen with fatal results.

The death is soon put to one side as the townspeople have other things on their mind. A ship, the St. John has been found out in the channel. It has been attacked by pirates. The crew are missing either captured or killed by the brigands. The people of Dartmouth are worried that this could be a new wave of strikes by the pirates. This would normally be bad enough, but is there something even more sinister afoot.

Spies and messengers are being sent to the traitor Roger Mortimer in France. If the messengers reach Mortimer civil war could erupt in England. Sir Baldwin and Simon must try to get to the truth quickly, but they know that this investigation could result in their own executions. There are powerful men waiting in the background and failure is not an option. But even if they succeed, other factions will want their heads on a pole.

Like fine wine, Michael Jecks' literary skills improve with age. Jecks has been writing his "Knights Templar" mysteries since 1995. "Death Ship of Dartmouth," a 2006 title, shows Jecks in fine form, sweeping up the reader in a wonderfully crafted, compulsive page-turner of a novel.

Jecks' novel presents the inhabitants of 14th Century Dartmouth - and the reader - with perplexing twin mysteries. An unidentified corpse is found in a Dartmouth road, his death an apparent accident. Meanwhile, in nearby coastal waters, a fire-blackened merchant vessel owned by a Dartmouth businessman is discovered. Its cargo is intact but the crew, save for one water-logged corpse found in the hold, is missing. The detective team of Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace, and baliff Simon Puttock added by coroner Sir Richard de Welles is soon on the scene trying to unravel the mysteries.

As with other Jecks' novels, "Death Ship" is brimming with head-scratching puzzles, multi-dimensional characters and wonderful period detail. Ar some point in reading this novel, the thought came to me how rich "Death Ship" really was.

The characters are an engaging mix of humanity - good, bad, noble, weak, ruthless, haunted by past events, etc. The larger-than-life de Welles character, cut from the cloth of Shakespeare's Falstaff, is a delight. And the main villain, Sir Andrew de Limpsfield, is a wonderfully evil, totally amoral piece of work.

Furnshill, Puttock and Welles finally get to the bottom of Jecks' intricately plotted story and the journey is a treat. The reader is forever wondering whether the various events and characters fit together and, if so, how. Jecks does an adroit job of juggling all the main story elements and sub-plots and keeps the reader guessing till the final denouement.

Jecks has no equal in the English medieval mystery field. His characters are well done, the plots are wonderfully intricate and the recreation of medieval England spot-on. This is one great read!

*******
One minor point. In 1965 Orson Welles starred in and directed "Chimes at Midnight," playing Sir John Falstaff. Now we have a Falstaff doppelganger named Richard de Welles. Coincidence, Mr. Jecks??

I purchased this on the chance it might be good and I was not let down. Neither will you! I found my self up to the wee hours of the morning reading this tale of dastardly do. As per the other reviewers, and now myself (also a computer professional), this is a heck of a good book. The plot moves along and is indeed well researched. All the characters are well drawn and I appreciated the map and glossary along with the list of cast of characters. I never knew about the horrible Despenser family and the years known as the "tyranny" until now. Mr. Jecks made me want to learn more. Plus, what made me like this book is that there is very little difference to the those days of yore and today!

Enjoy!

A literate historical mystery set in Devon less than two years before the fall of the terrible Despensers. I could not put it down.

Michael Jecks continues with is impressively well-researched medieval murder mysteries with "The Death Ship of Dartmouth," and this time takes the reader into the worlds of fourteenth-century England's seafaring commerce, abusive royal power, and the well-earned pride of the people of the critical port town of Dartmouth. Pirates and storms threaten the lives of Darmouth's sailors; but, Jecks deftly shows that what happens on shore can be just as deadly, and that in a corrupt age representatives of an Englishman's own king's cronies can be more blood-thirsty than any Breton pirate. A particularly gratifying quality of this tale is its demonstration of the redemption and significance that can be in store for medieval life's seemingly lower players, be they street pavers or criminals abjuring the realm.

I have purchased all 27 of the books in this series through Amazon; some new, some used. I love them! They are mysteries set around 1325 and are light and peopled by interesting characters. One learns of the hard times suffered by the common men and women and the abuses of royalty during the period. Although there are some gruesome murder scenes and rape and incest, I would say that these books are a relief from the sex and violence prevalent in the media today.

Jenks knows how to write and tell a good story that is historically accurate. A really good "whodunit."