Closely associated with the queen’s sister, Elizabeth, the book’s hero – if you can call him that – Jack Blackjack, has left London for his own safety. The Moorland Murderers is set in the time of the Tudor queen, Mary I, shortly after the Wyatt Rebellion. No, we are a few hundred years after the adventures of the bailiff and his friend, Baldwin, the former Knights’ Templar. What a thoroughly enjoyable adventure! Michael Jecks returns to his old literary haunts of Dartmoor – Lydford and Oakhampton – but without a Simon Puttock or Baldwin de Furnshill in sight. But knowing nothing of the local ways and customs, how is he to even begin? As Jack’s attempts to find answers stirs up a hornet’s nest of warring factions within the town, events soon start to spiral out of control. and why? Alone and friendless in a lawless land of cut-throats, outlaws and thieves, Jack realizes that the only way to clear his name – and save his skin – is to unmask the real killer. To make matters worse, the dead man turns out to have been the leader of the all-powerful miners who rule the surrounding moors – and they have no intention of waiting for the official court verdict to determine Jack’s guilt.īut who would frame Jack for murder.

July, 1556. En route to France and escape from Queen Mary’s men, Jack Blackjack decides to spend the night at a Devon tavern, agrees to a game of dice – and ends up accused of murder.

The Last Templar by Michael Jecks