Michael Jecks (born 1960,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

) is an English writer of

historical mystery The historical mystery or historical whodunit is a subgenre of two literary genres, historical fiction and mystery fiction. These works are set in a time period considered historical from the author's perspective, and the central plot involves th ...

novels.

Early life

The son of an actuary, and the fourth of four brothers, Jecks worked in the computer industry before becoming a novelist full-time in 1994 after he was fired from his last position. He, his wife, daughter and son live in northern

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

Career

Jecks has written a series of novels featuring Sir Baldwin Furnshill, a former

Knight Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

, and his friend Simon Puttock, Bailiff of Lydford Castle. He founded '' The Medieval Murderers'', a speaking and entertainment group of historical writers including

Bernard Knight Bernard Henry Knight (born 3 May 1931) is a Welsh forensic pathologist and writer. He became a Home Office pathologist in 1965 and was appointed Professor of Forensic Pathology, University of Wales College of Medicine, in 1980. Early life Knig ...

, Ian Morson,

Susanna Gregory Susanna Gregory is the pseudonym of Elizabeth Cruwys, a Cambridge academic who was previously a coroner's officer. She writes detective fiction, and is noted for her series of mediaeval mysteries featuring Matthew Bartholomew, a teacher of medi ...

Phillip Gooden Phillip may refer to: * Phillip (Bob the Builder), Bob the Builder's character * Phillip (character), Wallace & Gromit's character * Phillip (Saliba), Lebanese Orthodox prelate * Phillip (given name), given name * Phillip (surname), surname * Phill ...

and CJ Sansom. The group has developed to collaborate on their books written as linked novellas, each book with a consistent theme, under the brand of ''The Medieval Murderers''. More recently he helped create the '' Historical Writers' Association''. A member of the

Society of Authors The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. Membership of the society is open to "anyon ...

and Royal Literary Society, Jecks was the Chairman of the

Crime Writers' Association The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors' organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its "Dagger" awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. ...

in 2004–05. In 2005 he became a member of the

Detection Club The Detection Club was formed in 1930 by a group of British mystery writers, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Arthur Morrison, Hugh Walpole, John Rhode, Jessie Louisa Rickard, Baroness Orczy, ...

. From 1998 he organised the CWA Debut Dagger competition for two years, helping unpublished authors to win their first contracts. He was shortlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Best Novel of the Year prize in 2007. He also judged the CWA/Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for three years. Jecks speaks at literary festivals and historical meetings, at which he talks with Ian Mortimer, the historian, as well as Medieval Murderers. He helped create the Conway Stewart Detection Collection with a pen named for him. In 2014 he was the Grand Master of the Krewe of Little Rascals parade, the first parade of the New Orleans Mardi Gras. In the same year he was invited to be the International Guest of Honour at the Toronto Bloody Words Festival. Jecks has embarked on a trilogy of Hundred Years' War stories with Simon and Schuster UK. The first, ''Fields of Glory'', was published in 2014. The second, ''Blood on the Sand'', was published in June 2015. He also has a modern spy thriller published with Kindle, ''Act of Vengeance'', and two short story collections: ''No One Can Hear You Scream'' and ''For The Love of Old Bone''s.

Bibliography

Knights Templar Mysteries

# ''The Last Templar'' (March 1995)Medieval West Country Mysteries by Michael Jecks
/ref> # ''The Merchant's Partner'' (November 1995) # ''A Moorland Hanging'' (May 1996) # ''The Crediton Killings'' (June 1997) # ''The Abbot's Gibbet'' (April 1998) # ''The Leper's Return'' (November 1998) # ''Squire Throwleigh's Heir'' (June 1999) # ''Belladonna at Belstone'' (December 1999) # ''The Traitor of St. Giles'' (May 2000) # ''The Boy Bishop's Glovemaker'' (December 2000) # ''The Tournament of Blood'' (June 2001) # ''The Sticklepath Strangler'' (November 2001) # ''The Devil's Acolyte'' (June 2002) # ''The Mad Monk of Gidleigh'' (December 2002) # ''The Templar's Penance'' (June 2003) # ''The Outlaws of Ennor'' (January 2004) # ''The Tolls of Death'' (May 2004) # ''The Chapel of Bones'' (December 2004) # ''The Butcher of St Peter's'' (May 2005) # ''A Friar's Bloodfeud'' (June 2006) # ''The Death Ship of Dartmouth'' (November 2006) # ''The Malice of Unnatural Death'' (December 2006) # ''Dispensation of Death'' (June 2007) # ''The Templar, The Queen and Her Lover'' (December 2007) # ''The Prophecy of Death'' (June 2008) # ''King of Thieves'' (November 2008) # ''No Law in the Land'' (June 2009) # ''The Bishop Must Die'' (November 2009) # ''The Oath (2010)'' # ''King's Gold'' (2011) # ''City of Fiends'' (7 June 2012) # ''Templar's Acre'' (September 2013)

Hundred Years War

# ''Fields of Glory'' (June 2014) # ''Blood on the Sand'' (June 2015) # ''Blood of the Innocents'' (June 2016)

Bloody Mary / Jack Blackjack Series

# ''Rebellion's Message'' (May 2016) # ''A Murder Too Soon'' (May 2017) # ''A Missed Murder'' # ''The Dead Don't Wait'' # ''Death Comes Hot'' # ''The Moorland Murderers'' # ''The Merchant Murderers'' # ''Murdering the Messenger''

The Medieval Murderers

# ''The Tainted Relic'' (May 2005) # ''Sword of Shame'' (June 2006) # ''House of Shadows'' (June 2007) # ''The Lost Prophecies'' (June 2008) # ''King Arthur's Bones'' (2009) # ''Sacred Stone'' (2010) # ''Hill of Bones'' (2011) # ''The First Murder'' (2012) # ''The False Virgin'' (2013) # ''The Deadliest Sin'' (2014)

Short story collections

# ''No One Can Hear You Scream'' (2012) # ''For The Love of Old Bones'' (2012)

ebook only

# ''Act of Vengeance'' (2012)

References

External links

Author's Web Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jecks, Michael 1960 births 20th-century British novelists 21st-century British novelists English historical novelists Writers of historical mysteries Living people Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages British male novelists 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English male writers Members of the Detection Club Writers from Devon