History… the interesting bits!

Jack Blackjack stands accused of killing a priest in the wickedly entertaining new Bloody Mary Tudor mystery.

April, 1555. A priest has been stabbed to death in the village of St Botolph, to the east of the City of London, his body left to rot by the roadside – and Jack Blackjack stands accused of his murder.

As well as clearing his name, Jack has his own reasons for wanting to find out who really killed the priest – but this is an investigation where nothing is as it seems. Was it a random attack by a desperate outlaw, or do the answers lie in the murdered priest’s past? As he questions those who knew the dead man, Jack is faced with a number of conflicting accounts – and it’s clear that not everyone can be telling him the whole truth.

But Jack is about to be sidetracked from the investigation … with disastrous consequences.

I have been a fan of Michael Jecks‘ books ever since the first, The Last Templar, came out many, many years ago. And The Dead Don’t Wait clearly reminds me why I am such a fan of his writing. It is a wonderful murder mystery set in the time of Queen Mary I and a fine example of why Michael Jecks is considered one of the foremost authors of historical crime fiction.

The Dead Don’t Wait is the 4th title in Jecks’ Bloody Mary Mystery series.

The characters are wonderfully colourful and the various suspects suitably despicable or sympathetic, depending on their possible motives. The victim himself is not exactly the most innocent of men. And without the modern benefits of fingerprinting and DNA analysis, the book’s dubious hero, Jack Blackjack, must use his best detective skills to solve the crime. This fabulous combination serves to create a murder mystery that will have the reader gripped from the first page to the last.

What makes this book so perfect is its ‘hero’ – and I use the term as loosely as possible. Jack Blackjack is the most unremarkable hero you have probably come across. His drinking and womanising gets him into no end of trouble, and the fact he is officially an assassin – who has an aversion to blood – makes him the most unlikely of heroes and should make him an unsympathetic protagonist. However, it’s impossible not to like him!

Thus it was that a scant few minutes later I found myself bellowing for Raphe, who had finally found a decent wine, which he set about pouring into fresh cups. Sir Richard took up one and sipped it with a black glower fixed to his face, which was suddenly washed away and replaced by a beatific smile. ‘Hah! That’s more like it, boy! Next time I come, you will make sure that you find that barrel again, won’t ye? And next time we come here and find you’re serving dregs to your master, I will have you taken to the stocks personally. Understand me, boy?’

‘Y-yes,’ Raphe said, and I was delighted to hear him stammer. It was the first time in months that I had seen him lost for words or anxious, and it was a salve to my soul.

‘The dog,’ I said before he could scurry away. ‘You will have to put it out. I don’t want some mangy cur in my house. It could have rabies, for all you know.’

‘Yes, sir.’

That itself was a major success. He tended to avoid calling me ‘sir’, as if that was to concede that his own position was inferior. I watched him with narrowed eyes. I didn’t trust his sudden conversion to politeness.

He walked out carrying the two dirty cups and the empty flagon before I could comment further.

‘So you deny knowing this dead man?’ Sir Richard said.

‘Yes! I don’t even know the place you’re talking about. I’ve never been there. I spent all day today here in London.’

It is not only by the intricacies of the murder plot and the unravelling of the mystery, that the reader is entertained, but also by Jack’s own ability to get himself into the deepest water with the seediest members of the Tudor underworld.

The Dead Don’t Wait is a fast paced, enjoyable murder mystery with a balanced combination of diligent detective work and frenetic action. The characters drive this story, from Jack and his co-detective, Sir Richard, to Arch and Hamon, the London low-lifes who see Jack as an easy mark, to the various suspects who all have their own stories to unravel.

Michael Jecks weaves the various strands of the story together to create an engaging story that is impossible to put down and keeps the reader enthralled until long past their bedtime! It is thoroughly enjoyable!

For any fan of the detective novel, and any lover of Tudor history, this is a must read, and Jack Blackjack is a protagonist everyone should meet!

*

The Dead Don’t Wait is available from Amazon in the UK and US.

*

My Books

Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest

From Emma of Normandy, wife of both King Cnut and Æthelred II to Saint Margaret, a descendant of Alfred the Great himself, Silk and the Sword: the Women of the Norman Conquest traces the fortunes of the women who had a significant role to play in the momentous events of 1066.  Available now from Amazon UK,  Amberley Publishing, Book Depository and Amazon US.

Heroines of the Medieval World

Telling the stories of some of the most remarkable women from Medieval history, from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Julian of Norwich, Heroines of the Medieval World,  is available now on kindle and in paperback in the UK from from both Amberley Publishing and Amazon, in the US from Amazon and worldwide from Book Depository.

*

You can be the first to read new articles by clicking the ‘Follow’ button, liking our Facebook page or joining me on Twitter and Instagram.

©2019 Sharon Bennett Connolly