The Merchant Murderers
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"Superb. . .a fast-moving and gripping plot"- Publishers Weekly Starred Review
August, 1556. Jack Blackjack is on a simple mission: make it back home to his beloved London. It should be simple, right? Wrong. He's made it as far as Exeter, but before he can secure a fresh steed in that hellish city, he's faced with a dead priest, ruthless thieves, and a devious Dean who's determined to see the back of Jack. That suits Jack just fine – he wants to leave!
So when wealthy merchant Wolfe, offers passage to London via sea, Jack jumps at the chance . . . and unwittingly into further danger! With thieves, pirates and potential murderers at every turn who can Jack trust? Will he uncover the truth behind the dead priest and missing merchant ships? But more importantly, will he ever make it home to London with his purse strings and limbs intact?
Set during the brief but exceedingly troubled reign of Queen Mary I, elder half-sister to the future Elizabeth I, (1553-1558) the Bloody Mary series features the amoral former cutpurse turned paid assassin, Jack Blackjack, as its cowardly, lecherous, yet strangely likeable amateur sleuth protagonist. The joke is always on Jack as he lurches from one crisis to the next, never quite sure what's going on, yet always – just about – managing to keep one step ahead of his many enemies and those who, for whatever reason, are trying to kill him.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
