Michael Jecks

＂Superb . . . a fast-moving and gripping plot＂ Publishers Weekly Starred Review of The Merchant Murderers

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 the simple pleasures - women, wine, beer and more women.

But his new parish of St Helen’s has different ideas for him . . . a week after first laying eyes on the tempting Miss Rachel Nailor, she turns up horribly dead on the church vestry floor . . . and someone is trying to frame him for her murder!

A fellow Lady Elizabeth sympathiser, it appears Rachel Nailor was a woman with many secrets. But was she murdered in a fit of lustful rage, or was it part of a wider political play? Who would want Rachel dead - and Jack hanged for it? The suspects are plenty and Jack is running out of time.

With his master breathing down his neck, and old foes crawling out of the woodwork to add to Jack’s wine-fuelled headache, Jack has never been in more danger!

Michael Jecks is the author of forty-seven novels, including the acclaimed Last Templar medieval mystery series, modern spy thriller Act of Vengeance, and seven previous Bloody Mary mysteries. A former Chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association, and founder of Medieval Murderers, he lives in northern Dartmoor.