Customer Reviews

A Friar's Bloodfeud (Knights Templar)

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For those readers who are familiar with Michael Jecks books, this one is just as good as all the rest. For those who have not read Michael Jecks, but like historical novels, particularly about medieval England, you are in for all real treat.

The two main characters in the books are Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock. Sir Baldwin is an ex Crusader knight, who has managed to escape the wrath of the French King who ordered the destruction of the Order and all of its members.

Sir Baldwin is now the head of the family manor after the death of his brother and is also Keeper of the King's Peace in Devon.

Word reaches Simon that a gang of men have broken into the house of his servant Hugh and attacked the family. When Simon reaches the cottage he find it burnt to the ground and the bodies already buried. It would seem that Hugh must have perished in a dreadful accident, but Simon and Sir Baldwin begin to suspect that there is much more to it than that

Murder most foul raises its ugly head once again in Michael Jecks' ongoing 'Knights Templar' series but this time the loss is a personal one for the team of Furnshill and Puttock. Puttock's former servant, Hugh, his wife and son have been slaughtered and other Iddesleigh residents terrorized by unknown villains. As the Keeper of the King's Peace and his old friend and their wives journey to the scene of the crime to investigate, the reader is plunged into yet another entertaining medieval murder mystery.

As events turn out, Hugh's death is apparently wrapped up in the ongoing duel of wits between two competing manors. Discovering just who the murderers are and how the whole puzzle falls together takes up the book's 500 pages, a task not made easier as bodies pile up.

A FRIAR'S BLOODFEUD is vintage Jecks. His ability to construct intricate storylines that have the reader frantically turning page after page, his wide-ranging knowledge of medieval England and, most importantly, his ability to construct multi-dimensional characters are all in evidence.

As much as I have enjoyed the 'Knights Templar' series, I also find myself coming away from the stories with new insights about humanity circa 1300. Reading A FRIAR'S BLOODFEUD left me appalled at the casual brutality with which the 'haves' of medieval England treated the 'have nots.' Though they were knights, the conduct of the two opposing masters of Fishleigh and Monkleigh was reprehensible but probably typical of those times.

In any case, Furnshill and Puttock triumph in the end but you'll have to read A FRIAR'S BLOODFEUD to find out who did it and why. Along the way, you'll be treated to another marvelous, insightful and wonderfully entertaining journey through medieval England. Highly recommended.

In this the 20th of the Knights Templar Mysteries of Devon-based writer Michael Jecks, we watch in dread--along with the protagonists Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace, and Bailiff Simon Puttock--as Sir Odo, who serves a vassal of Lord Hugh de Courtnay (a powerful lord in several of Jecks's tales), and Sir Geoffrey, a Despenser man, escalate their intra-county cold war into something raw and fierce that carelessly drags into its cruelty the lives of innocents, as such petite and petty wars did 1,000s of times during the Middle Ages in Britain and Europe. Most troubling of all, the clash of these two men and their machinations engulf Hugh, Simon's servant. It is up to Baldwin and Simon, along with Baldwin's servant Edgar, to work to salvage a vestige of justice from the harsh events spinning out of control. But even as our heroes become the most clear-eyed center of a storm whirling about them, they uncover shocking realities that rest behind the Odo-Geoffrey feud, and are faced with the reality that in war, justice that they rightly cherish so dearly can be messy and come from unexpected quarters.

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

I, unfortunately, was only introduced to Michael Jecks' Templar Mystery Series this year. I had missed reading a good historical fiction / mystery. There are few who are good in this genre, who really do have some grasp of the historical period they "work in." It is only a few months ago that I read my first Jeck's mystery and at the end of August, 2006 I find myself having read all of his books to date and can't wait until the November release of his latest work in the U.S. I will have to go back to technical works, etc. until I can read another Jeck's book. My only regret is that this masterful writer can't produce more books, but that would not be humanly possible. It is a marvel that he is as productive as he is.

BTW, one cannot but become "close" to his primary characters.
If anyone is offended by any content, it is, after all, early 16th century England and the religio-political life he describes is well documented. If I were writing the books, I might have toned down some things, etc., but then I am not much of an author either as is the good Mr. Jeck's.

My "hat is off" to Jeck's who persists in writing well and often and not always appreciated for the quality of his work.
One would think BBC or other producer would give a try adapting his work to the screen even the little one (Telly).