Medieval Historical Fiction Mystery

Betrayal by friend and foe alike beset Sir John Hawkwood as he enters the murky world of Italian politics. He will emerge from the experience as a true leader of men but first he has to outwit his enemies of which there are many. With Montferrat secured from the Savoyards and with the White Company now firmly in his hands, Sir John Hawkwood leads his men to Pisa where they have been hired to fight the Florentines. The hero of Poitiers is about to enter a world of treachery, intrigue and double dealing for which he is quite unprepared.

In 1360, the Great Bridge over the River Cam is close to collapse. To repair it will cost the town and the University dear, especially if its rotten wood is replaced by more durable stone. As arguments rage over raising the money other, equally heated, differences are coming to the boil over the election of a new chancellor. While the majority support Brother Michael for the post, at least one of his opponents aims to seize it by fair means or foul. Then the discovery of a body under the bridge and the disappearance of two scholars throws a more sinister shadow over both disputes.

Listen to the first three books in the medieval time travel romance series listeners call addictive: A Knight to Remember, Knight Moves, and Lonely Is the Knight.

Poitiers was in the past, but it changed the life of Sir John Hawkwood, for he gained his spurs and that was another step on his journey. Once he realised that he had more ambition than just to serve the king of England, he joined forces with Albert Sterz and formed a company of mercenaries who hired out their swords. Fighting for the king of England against Burgundy, they gained a reputation which made others both fear and hate them in equal measure.

Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight, has been educated as a clerk, usually a prelude to taking holy orders. However, feeling no certain calling despite a lively faith, he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris and then hanging out his sign in Oxford. A local lord asks him to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cesspit. She is identified as the impetuous missing daughter of a local blacksmith, and her young man, whom she had provoked very publicly, is in due course arrested and sentenced at the Oxford assizes.

Oxford, late summer, 1353. On hearing that his cousin is short-handed for the harvest, Nicholas Elyot takes a group of friends back to the family farm to help. When a deer hunt in Wychwood ends in tragedy, suspicion is directed toward the huntsman, a boyhood friend of Nicholas. But the victim has made many other enemies, any one of whom could have shot the fatal arrow. Can Nicholas uncover the real killer before it is too late?

Alan, the beadle of the manor of Bampton, had gone out at dusk to seek those who might violate curfew. When, the following morning, he had not returned home, his young wife Matilda had sought out Master Hugh de Singleton, surgeon and bailiff of the manor. Two days later Alan’s corpse was discovered in the hedge, at the side of the track to St. Andrew’s Chapel. His throat had been torn out - his head was half severed from his body - and his face, hands, and forearms were lacerated with deep scratches.

A new home under threat... Family and friends in mortal danger... Will Richard be able to save everyone? Can Richard survive being plunged into the cut-throat world of medieval campaigning, complete with sieges, pitched battles and more. Book Two in The Legend of Richard Keynes series follows Richard as he struggles to assert authority over his new land, as well as his new wife. He will have to battle against bad omens, prejudice and the consequences of his actions.

When Prince Arthur is murdered and the French begin to take Normandy, Sir Thomas finds himself isolated and alone. The Norman barons conspire against King John and the English knight has a dilemma. Does he join the rebels or stay true to his beliefs? Undefeated he and one of his knights leave Anjou and sail to a new life in England but it is not a life without trouble and death. He finds himself, in the midst of conspiracies and plots, forced to defend his land against bandits, brigands and the Scots.

Oxford, Autumn 1353. St. Frideswide's Fair is a great annual event in Oxford, bringing together merchants and buyers from all over England and Wales, and from as far away as Flanders and France. Yet the earnings from the fair, granted to the Priory of St. Frideswide centuries before, are resented by the town, and resentment can turn to violence. Under the unscrupulous Prior de Hungerford, even more trouble is brewing.

King Charles of France has announced that he is confiscating Aquitaine, and Prince Edward has sent for knights and men at arms from England to assist him in opposing the French king. Lord Gilbert Talbot is required to provide five knights, 12 squires, and 20 archers and men at arms, and wishes his surgeon - Hugh de Singleton - to travel with the party, while Hugh’s wife Kate oversees the castle. Among the party will be Sir Simon Trillowe, Hugh’s old nemesis and Kate’s former suitor, who had once set fire to Hugh’s house.

Meet Richard Fitzwarren - an anti-hero with a dubious past, questionable morals but unswerving loyalties. Richard grinned and grasping his brother's wrist said, “Terrible apart and even worse together - that would make us a fine family moto. Et mirabilia absque peius.” Jack Fitzwarren, Richard’s displaced bastard brother, seeks a place at his brother’s side. Impulsive and hot headed, his attempts to gain his brother’s acceptance and approval often end badly. Finally the brothers are brought head to head when Richard tries to foil a plot against Elizabeth I.

The summer of 1273 is peaceful for most of England, except in the village of Tyndal, where Martin the cooper has been poisoned at the local inn. Martin had plenty of enemies; the killer could be anyone. Prioress Eleanor grieves for her friend, the newly bereaved Crowner Ralf, and offers what help she can. But then her own problems multiply.

A violent encounter at a tournament thrusts Ela into a tug of war over an ancient manor. A young knight wants to wrest the family estates from his mother and Ela finds her own roles as countess and castellan challenged as accusations of murder ring in the air.

When assassin Rafe Fletcher returns home to London, he can’t help falling for his brother’s woman. For a man looking for redemption, it’s the last thing he wants. Lizzie Croft has feared her friend’s brooding brother for years. She remembers him as cold, calculating and dangerous, the very last man she needs in her life. The very last man she can trust. But trust him she must when she becomes the prime suspect in a murder.

After enduring years of her nobleman father's cruelty and abuse, Celestina Lunde is ready to take her own life rather than enter into an arranged marriage with an equally brutal man. But just when she is about to leap through the window of her tower bedroom, a brawny Highland warrior arrives at her home and changes everything.

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.

Edmund Harkins has gone missing. Few in Bampton liked him, knowing him to be a wife-beater and distinctly unsavory character, so when some hungry pigs unearth his corpse from a shallow grave, there is hardly an outpouring of grief. As bailiff, it is Hugh de Singleton’s duty to bring Edmund’s killer to justice. But where is he to start investigating when almost everyone in the village has a motive? And when everyone is pleased to see the scoundrel dead, who knows how far they might go to help someone get away with murder?

England, 1351. The Pestilence has ravaged the land. Villages lie abandoned but for crows and corpses. Highways are patrolled by marauders and murderers. In these dark and dangerous times, the wise keep to themselves. But Gerard Fox cannot afford to be wise. The young knight has been robbed of his ancestral home, his family name tarnished. To regain his lands and reputation, he sets forth to petition the one man who can restore them. Fate places Fox on the wrong road at the wrong time as he hurtles towards a chance encounter.

Keeping watch over the Easter Sepulchre, where the Host and crucifix are stored between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, is considered a privilege. So it is shocking when it is discovered that Odo, the priest’s clerk, has abandoned his post. But as the hours pass and Odo is not found, Hugh de Singleton is called upon. It is Hugh that finds the dried blood before the altar, and fear grows for the missing man … Will Hugh be called upon to investigate another murder, or will the man be found hale and hearty? But if so, where has the blood come from?