Michael Jecks has 18 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is The Sacred Stone.
The Sacred Stone
Summary
Masters of the historical mystery, authors Michael Jecks, Susanna Gregory, Bernard Knight, Ian Morson, Philip Gooden, Simon Beaufort, and C.J. Sansom band together as The Medieval Murderers to craft this thrilling tale. In 1067 Greenland, a strange stone falls from the sky. Over the next 600 years, violence and death follow whoever possesses it, including crusading knights, a dying King Henry III, and a troupe of His Majesty King James I’s players.
©2010 The Medieval Murderers (P)2011 W.F. Howes, Ltd
No Law in the Land
Summary
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 no longer in the king’s favour. They return to their homes in Devon, but they find that outlaws hold sway in the land. Sir Robert, a knight from the King’s household, has turned outlaw from his castle near Crediton. When a pair of clerics are found murdered, Baldwin and Simon are asked to investigate. But then Simon’s own daughter is threatened by Sir Robert, and all hell is let loose....
©2009 Michael Jecks (P)2009 Soundings
The Tolls of Death
Summary
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 who requires their help to solve two murders on the estate. The first victim is a widow, found dead with her two children. The second is Serlo, the miller, who has recently been discovered embezzling castle money taken in tolls. As Baldwin and Simon begin a double investigation, they must look beneath the village friendships and family loyalties to find an evil killer and secure Cardinham's safety.
©2004 Michael Jecks (P)2020 Soundings
The Malice of Unnatural Death
Summary
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 craftsman and that of a king’s messenger who was carrying a dangerous secret are found in the city’s streets, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend, Bailiff Simon Puttock, are asked by the bishop to find out who is responsible. But when murderers can use magic, no one is safe....
©2006 Michael Jecks (P)2007 Soundings
The Death Ship of Dartmouth
Summary
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 attentions to more worrying matters - piracy. Rumours abound that spies are being sent to the great traitor Roger Mortimer. If this is true, civil war in England is inevitable. The kingdom’s most powerful and ruthless men demand that Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock uncover the truth, and quickly. Fail and they will be executed. Succeed and there will be others ready to silence them forever....
©2006 Michael Jecks (P)2007 Soundings
The Bishop Must Die
Summary
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 daughter of the French Count of Hainault, and all England fears invasion. As news of an invasion fleet is received, the King’s knights, including Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, are commanded to London to protect the King and his realm. Meanwhile Bishop Stapledon, the Treasurer of England, is under threat - but from whom? He has made many enemies, and Baldwin and ex-bailiff Simon Puttock must do all they can to find the would-be assassin before it’s too late.
©2009 Michael Jecks (P)2010 Soundings
A Moorland Hanging
Summary
They had all joined taking three vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience. For they were monks: warrior monks, dedicated to the protection of pilgrims in the Holy Land - until stories spread by an avaricious king who wanted their wealth for his own destroyed the order. There was one knight, however, who escaped the stake, vowing justice as he watched his innocent brothers die. Cold-blooded murder has transformed Simon Puttock's official obligation into something horrid, and he will need the able assistance of his friend, Sir Baldwin Furnshill, to draw a criminal out. A former Knight Templar, Sir Baldwin knows much of duty and servitude and of evil freely indulged in the name of godliness or greed. Now, justice must be served, even if their search exposes extortion, foul corruption, rule by fear, and killers willing, even eager, to shed more blood.
©1996 Michael Jecks (P)2007 Isis Publishing Ltd.
The Chapel of Bones
Summary
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 Cathedral Close - but this killer is not so easily caught. The victim, Henry Potell, was feared and hated; he held secrets that some wished to keep hidden.... For Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace, and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock, events become increasingly mysterious. What first appears to be a matter of lust or greed soon grows more troubling as Baldwin becomes aware of the ominous Chapel of Bones, built long ago in reparation for a terrible murder....
©2004 Michael Jecks (P)2006 Soundings
The Templar's Penance
Summary
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 brutally raped and murdered on the hillside of Santiago de Compostela.
Baldwin and Simon lend their investigative skills to the ensuing enquiry headed by the local pesquisidore, Munio. With so many keen minds on the case it can only be a matter of time before the culprit is found. But they are reckoning without the unexpected appearance of a face from Baldwin's past - a face which looks set to threaten both the investigation and Baldwin's very future.
©2003 Michael Jecks (P)2019 Soundings
The Outlaws of Ennor
Summary
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 think that his closest friend is dead, but he has to put aside his grief when the master of the castle orders him to investigate a murder.
Meanwhile, Baldwin himself has been washed up on St Nicholas and is nursed back to health by the beautiful Tedia. He uncovers a different picture of the island as he too begins to investigate the murder. Can Baldwin's and Simon's parallel investigations uncover the truth?
©2003 Michael Jecks (P)2020 Soundings
The Butcher of St Peter's
Summary
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 protect his children, and the folk of Exeter want this menace caught and hanged. Sir Baldwin de Furnshill suspects that the solution isn’t that simple. As the country prepares for yet another civil war, two more people are found dead, and the city of Exeter shudders at the thought that there could be a killer out there, determined enough to strike again and again....
©2005 Michael Jecks (P)2006 Soundings
The Templar, the Queen and Her Lover
Summary
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 to France to negotiate peace with the French King, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill travels with her to ensure her safety. But it seems that no one can be trusted, not least the queen’s own retinue. Murder, betrayal, adultery and cold, calculating evil are just the beginning of Baldwin’s tempestuous journey into the dark hearts of powerful nations at war with each other.
©2007 Michael Jecks (P)2008 Soundings
The Merchant's Partner
Summary
When the mutilated body of midwife and healer Agatha Kyteler is discovered in a hedge one frozen wintry morning, it seems at first that a lack of clues will render the crime impossible to solve. Then a frightened local youth inexplicably flees his village, and a hue and cry is raised in his wake.
Sir Baldwin Furnshill, once a Knight Templar, has doubts about the boy's guilt. He enlists his friend Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford Castle, in the hunt for a murderer. But what they seek lies somewhere on the darker side of Wefford, beneath layers of jealousy, suspicion, and hatred - and the buried truth could prove fatal to anyone who disturbs it.
©1995 Michael Jecks (P)2007 Soundings
The Prophecy of Death
Summary
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, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock return from France with an urgent instruction for the King. It is to be their last mission. But they soon find themselves at the centre of a deadly court intrigue involving the most powerful and ruthless men in the country - once again their livelihoods and lives are in mortal danger.
©2008 Michael Jecks (P)2008 Soundings
The Mad Monk of Gidleigh
Summary
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 obvious suspect. Called to investigate, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock soon begin to have their doubts. Could one of Mary's many admirers have murdered her in a fit of jealousy? Or might it be someone even closer to home?
By the time their search is over, life for Baldwin and Simon, and their families, will never be quite the same again.
©2002 Michael Jecks (P)2019 Soundings
A Friar's Bloodfeud
Summary
Bailiff Simon Puttoc’s servant, Hugh, has been granted leave to look after his wife, Constance, and her son. But their happy time is to be short-lived, for a gang of men break into their home and attack Hugh’s family. When Simon and Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace, arrive on the scene the cottage is burnt to the ground, the bodies from within already buried. It seems that Hugh must have perished in a dreadful accident - but appearances can be deceptive. When Simon and Baldwin begin investigating, it becomes clear that evil lurks in this land, and the pain and bloodshed are far from over....
©2005 Michael Jecks (P)2006 Soundings
Dispensation of Death
Summary
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 throne, the king demands to be avenged. Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, an experienced investigator of murders, is appointed to track down the killer, aided by his friend, Simon Puttock. In an age of corruption, when the king’s friends can use torture, blackmail and murder to promote their ends, a rural knight and bailiff must fight to stay alive.
©2007 Michael Jecks (P)2008 Soundings
The Dead Don't Wait
Summary
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 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.
©2019 Michael Jecks (P)2019 Soundings