The Merchant Murderers

Starred review from August 15, 2022
In Jecks’s superb seventh Tudor mystery starring Jack Blackjack, a roguish assassin in the employ of Queen Mary’s sister, Lady Elizabeth (after 2021’s The Moorland Murderers), Jack has fled London, fearing arrest, following suspicions that his lady has been plotting to seize the crown. He’s gone to Devon, hoping to seek passage to refuge in France. That plan is complicated when Jack gets involved in investigating the murder of Roger Lane, found in an alley with his head bashed in. Lane had made many enemies, and he was considered heretical for his devotion to the Church of England rather than Catholicism. In addition, his reputation as a ladies’ man led numerous men to believe he’d cuckolded them. Jack suspects the killing may be tied to a feud between two local merchants who blamed each other after their ships were attacked at sea. Touches of Wodehousian humor (“No matter how rosy life can look, there is always the possibility that Chance and Fate had only been pulling up their shirt-sleeves, cracking their knuckles and preparing to make life sticky”) enhance a fast-moving and gripping plot. After more than 45 novels, Jecks still has plenty of tricks up his sleeves. Agent: Joanna Swainson, Hardman & Swainson (U.K.).

September 1, 2022
A cowardly assassin repeatedly escapes death as he tries to return to London. Arriving in Exeter in August 1556, Jack Blackjack immediately stumbles over a dead body. Jack had left London and his employment as Lady Elizabeth Tudor's hapless hired killer hoping to escape the dangers of political skulduggery unleashed by the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary as she turns the country away from her father's religion. As he looks for a horse to take him to London, he's horrified to find himself caught up in the murder of a priest of the new religion while vendettas unspool between several merchants who've recently lost valuable ships. He falls in with the son of one of those merchants and his friend, who introduce him to noisome taverns and a higher-class house of prostitution. When his purse is snatched by a young girl, his better nature leads him to buy her a meal. His efforts to obtain a horse become more desperate as he becomes unwillingly entangled in the affairs of the town's ruling class. Following a suggestion, he attempts to return to London by ship only to find that he's being sent to France. After the ship is attacked by pirates, he barely escapes back to Exeter, where he's once more embroiled in trouble from which he can extricate himself only by solving the murder of the priest. The comical hero provides an amusing instrument for exploring the mores and history of the period.

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