Michael Jecks

London 1555. Queen Mary is newly married to Philip II of Spain – and not everyone is happy about the alliance. The kingdom is divided between those loyal to Catholic Mary and those who support her half-sister, Lady Elizabeth. Former cutpurse turned...

June, 1554. Professional assassin Jack Blackjack has been despatched to the palace of Woodstock, where Queen Mary's half-sister, Princess Elizabeth, is being kept under close guard. Jack's employer has reason to believe that a spy has been installed...

Cut adrift by British Intelligence at the end of the Cold War, Jack Case is called back into service following 9/11. In a quiet Alaskan backwater, a man named Danny Lewin has committed suicide. But this was no ordinary suicide. This was an agent who...

London, 1556. Hal Westmecott, one of the city's most feared executioners, reckons Jack Blackjack owes him a favour – and now he's come to collect his dues. Hal has ordered Jack to track down his long-lost son. But when Jack's search draws him to the...

1325: England is a hotbed of paranoia under the reign of the increasingly unpredictable Edward II and his lover, Sir Hugh le Despenser. When the Queen’s lady-in-waiting is slaughtered and a man’s body, hideously mutilated, is discovered behind the...

March 1557. Jack Blackjack is back in London and enjoying a sedentary life. After his treacherous voyage back to his beloved city the previous year, he desires nothing more than women, wine, beer and more women. But his new parish of St Helen's has...

When King Edward II is informed that his wife, Queen Isabella, has defied him and remained in France with their son, he flies into a rage. It is Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock, who have broken the news to him and are now...

January, 1554. Light-fingered Jack Blackjack knows he's not going to have a good day when he wakes with a sore head next to a dead body in a tavern's yard. But when he discovers what's in the dead man's purse, his day is set to get much worse. The...

1326: Queen Isabella refuses to leave France and humiliates her husband King Edward II by flaunting her adulterous relationship with the arch-traitor Sir Roger Mortimer. The King is furious when he hears she has also betrothed their son to the...

Exeter, 1323. A strange man is entering people’s houses at night, causing panic amongst householders. Although many had thought him harmless, now he seems to have committed murder. A man lies dead in his own home, slaughtered merely for trying to...

Forty years ago, Exeter's Cathedral Close was the scene of a vicious ambush. Afterwards, the bodies left lying in their blood bore witness to the conflicts tearing at the heart of the Cathedral itself. Today, in 1323, murder is again polluting the...

1555. A priest has been stabbed to death in the village of St Botolph, 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...

1324: a disastrous autumn looms large. As the leaves begin to fall there are those who wish to bring the Kingdom down as well. In Dartmouth, a man is found lying dead in the road. Dismissing his death as a drunken accident, the locals turn their...

1325: Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Simon Puttock are sent to France to guard the King’s son. The King’s son must pay homage to the French King if he is to enable the English to keep hold of vital territory, but they are unaware that King...

As the winter of 1323 descends upon a windswept chapel on the edge of Dartmoor, who could blame the young priest, Father Mark, for seeking affection from Mary, the miller's daughter? But when Mary, and her unborn child, are found dead, Mark is the...

Roger Mortimer was once the King’s most able commander, but now he is his most hated enemy. Escaping from the Tower, Mortimer made his way to France and has hired an assassin to murder the King – but others have the same idea. As the body of a local...

August 1556. Jack Blackjack is on a simple mission: make it back home to his beloved London. It should be simple, right? Wrong. He's made it as far as Exeter, but before he can secure a fresh steed in that hellish city, he's faced with a dead priest,...

July 1556. Jack Blackjack spends the night at a Devon tavern, agrees to a game of dice - and ends up accused of murder. To make matters worse, the dead man was the leader of the all-powerful miners who rule the surrounding moors. But who would frame...

On their return home from their pilgrimage, Baldwin and Simon's ship is attacked off the coast of the Scilly Isles by pirates and Simon looks on in horror as Baldwin is swept overboard. Washed ashore on the tiny island of Ennor, Simon is distraught to...

1325: King Edward II’s reign seems cursed. Although he has rejected his wife, Queen Isabella, he still relies on her. Even now, she is in France to negotiate peace with her brother, King Charles IV of France – but he fears for the outcome. Meanwhile,...

1325: In the gilded cage that is the Palace of Westminster, Isabella, Queen of England, is troubled by court intrigue. Her jealous husband, Edward II, has removed all her privileges, her regal status and even her children. When Isabella is dispatched...

Baldwin Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock have been granted leave to go on pilgrimage. Together they travel across Europe to Portugal, but danger seems to follow them, as they are among the first on the scene when a beautiful young girl is found...

After their gruelling journeys to Galicia and Scilly, Baldwin and Simon are at last back on the English mainland. Eager to get home, they set off on horseback but only get as far as Cardinham on Bodmin Moor. Here, they are detained by the castellan...