Customer Reviews

The King of Thieves: A Knights Templar Mystery

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I started with one of the later books in The Templar Mysteries, The Templar, the Queen and her Lover.
Loved this book so much, I started reading the whole series.

Well written, superbly researched, it gives you a believable inside of medieval life.
This is a series, that I highly highly recommend.

Jecks' style is really showing the polish that practice and diligent research can bring. The story is very smooth, with intrigue going on at several different levels. If you want to--or have to--learn the history of 14th-century England, this is the way to do it--a good, gripping tale set against an historically accurate background.

This mystery, part of a long series by Michael Jecks, is well-researched and carefully plotted. This was my introduction to the series about two English Knights who solve crimes in the murky Middle Ages reign of Edward II. This mystery was set in 1325 and it concerns multiple killings that occurred in Paris, France near the palace of the French King, Charles IV.

What made this book so entertaining is that many of the major characters, King Charles IV of France, King Edward II of England, Sir Hugh le Despenser, Roger de Mortimer, Bishop Walter Stapledon, Queen Isabella of France, were real people who lived during 1325 and did the things that are set forth in the book. In 1325 Queen Isabella was on a diplomatic mission from England to France. (The French King was her brother). When Edward II ordered her to return, she refused.

The series will continue and eventually cover the 1326 invasion of England by Queen Isabella and Roger de Mortimer. I can't wait to read more books in this series.

Another solid Jecks' achievement, "The King of Thieves" is one of the darker yarns (and the 26th) in his long-running series of 14th-century murder mysteries, The Knights Templar Mysteries. But the darkness is not gratuitous. It reflects the cruel and rough criminal underworld of early 1300's Paris to which the reader is exposed. Jecks populates "Thieves" some particularly interesting supporting characters, including Jacquot (a criminal), Amelie (a prostitute), Helias (a brothel keeper) and Jean de Poissy (a Parisian prosecutor) who is one of the best supporting characters Jecks has crafted since Sir Baldwin de Furnshill--the main character, our hero and crime-solver--was first called from Devon to Westminster Palace and met the feckless King Edward II and his avaricious confidant Hugh le Despenser (in the 23rd title of the series, "The Dispensation of Death.") What is more, events in this title take dark turns for Bishop Stapleton, too--a major reoccurring character.

Michael Jecks does a great job in his Templar series. This is another great example. Great turnaround.

I've read two too many of this series. Read one and you've read them all