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Roger the Chapman Mystery #3

Sometimes dead men tell the most interesting tales…

New Year's, 1474, finds Roger the Chapman collapsed with fever after wandering the frozen roads of Western England. Taken in by widow Margaret Walker and her daughter, Lillis, in the ancient trading port of Bristol, he awakens to find himself in the middle of another mystery.

The two women seem mistrusted by villagers and uneasy even at home. He learns that Margaret's father vanished last year, presumed dead. A man was hanged for his murder, but not two months later the old man wandered back into town, unable to account for his disappearance.

Vowing to root out the evil at work in the Walker home, Roger puts his God-given talent for solving mysteries to good use, once more unravelling the complex web before him: a town plagued by secret allegiances, rivalries and deceit…

The third book in the completely gripping Roger the Chapman mysteries, full of suspense and intrigue, perfect for fans of D. V. Bishop, Graham Brack and S. G. MacLean.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #10 King Edward IV trembles as he decides the fate of his sibling. And Richard, Duke of Gloucester, plots, trying to find a way to save George from being put to death by their eldest – and powerful – brother, the King. So when the Duke sees his old and loyal servant, monk-turned-travelling salesman Roger the Chapman, among the crowd at the trial he recognises that he has a chance. If only the chapman-sleuth could prove that the kinswoman of the King’s favorite leman hadn’t poisoned her taciturn husband. If Isolda Bonifant, the daughter of a well-established London goldsmith, were innocent and her name cleared, then Edward’s chief mistress – cousin of the accused Isolda – would be more than willing to do the wily Duke’s bidding. But Roger the Chapman must act fast and, in a complex case like this one and with the pressure of Richard of Gloucester upon him, he can’t simply rely on his intuition…

Roger the Chapman Mystery #14

Things aren’t going too well at home for Roger the Chapman and his wife, Adela.

Their fourth child has died only days after being born and Roger fails to conceal his feelings of relief at having one less mouth to feed. Adela naturally resents his attitude and their bitter arguments become increasingly commonplace. Roger decides that to maintain harmony at home the best thing he can do is take up his pack and cudgel and once again leave Bristol to trade his goods in the surrounding countryside.

Almost as soon as he makes this decision, he receives a message from King Edward IV’s brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, summoning him to London to assist in the investigation into the murder of Fulk Quantrell, the son of one of the ladies-in-waiting to Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, who is on a triumphant return visit to London. It seems Roger has no choice but to return to the dirty, crowded streets of London, where he soon meets a surprising number of people – royalty, servants and workers alike – who all have a motive for murder.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #6

Despite the wintry weather, Roger, the traveling Chapman, is once again relishing the freedom of his calling. As he journeys west, he finds himself following in the footsteps of an itinerant preacher, Brother Simeon, whose fiery sermons are the talk of the countryside. Roger, who has met the Dominican friar before, and finds his zeal wearying, is less than enthused when they meet at Cederwell Manor, where Simeon has come to pray with Lady Cederwell and Roger to sell her his wares.

But scarcely have the two men arrived when Lady Cederwell is found dead, sprawled on the frozen earth beneath the ancient tower she had converted into her private chapel, the circumstances strangely fulfilling the prophecy of a babbling hermit Roger had met on the road. Suddenly the friar and the Chapman are united by their aim – to discover the truth behind the death at Cederwell Manor.

In this, the sixth in her atmospheric and thoughtful detective series, Kate Sedley confirms her place in the world of medieval crime fiction.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #2

Find the killer. Solve the case. Save yourself.

Roger the Chapman has been royally commanded to escort a King's messenger, Philip Underdown, who is carrying a vital despatch aboard his ship in Plymouth.

When the messenger is murdered with Roger's own cudgel – a Plymouth cloak – he is appalled to find himself the chief suspect in a world of double-dealing, sin and political chicanery.

Discovering Underdown's shady past of slave dealing, however, Roger quickly learns that the messenger had no shortage of enemies waiting patiently to exact revenge…

A truly gripping medieval mystery, with twists and turns to keep you completely hooked, perfect for fans of S. J. Parris, Graham Brack and S. W. Perry.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #5

A nefarious plot will go right to the heart of the most powerful seat in the land…

Roger the Chapman returns to London in the summer of 1475 for some badly needed rest and entertainment. But the hand of Fate interrupts his plans once again …

King Edward IV is readying his troops to invade France with a great show of strength, and though rumors abound that the king is reluctant, London is teeming with the energy of the march.

But as the campaign approaches, a spy infiltrates the household of the Duke of Gloucester, the king’s brother, leaving one dead in their wake. All information indicates that the spy is the tool of a conspiracy to assassinate the duke before the king’s invasion.

Motive and method, no one knows – only that the duke’s death is promised by the eve of Saint Hyacinth. Roger, who proved his loyalty to Gloucester in a case a few years ago, is the only one the duke trusts to uncover the traitor and the powers behind him.

A gripping political thriller and masterful medieval mystery novel, perfect for fans of D. V. Bishop, C. J. Sansom and Ellis Peters.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #4

A town paralysed with fear, two children gone missing. Roger’s most difficult case yet…

April, 1475. As Roger approaches the thriving village of Totnes, danger crackles in the air. A pack of cutthroats wanders the forest after a night of pillaging, and Roger barely manages to hide from them in the brush.

He soon learns that the marauding band has been terrorizing the countryside for weeks. And worse, they are believed to be responsible for the disappearance of two village children.

But how did the children get out of the house unnoticed in broad daylight? And would the outlaws really kill just for the sake of killing? Roger cannot rest – or rule out the possibility of more violence – until he solves the puzzle.

Another scintillating medieval mystery from master of the genre Kate Sedley, perfect for fans of Ellis Peters, Paul Doherty and Edward Marston.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #13

Roger the Chapman is not a superstitious man.

He hears stories of murders and haunted houses around the market town of Bristol, and chooses to believe the more prosaic explanation every time. But when Roger is himself attacked in the very house where a woman murdered her violent husband thirty years previously, he is forced to admit that something strange is going on – particularly when everybody he encounters in the town denies seeing or hearing anything untoward in the notorious house that stormy night. And when his own wife refuses to believe his story, he starts to worry that he is losing his mind.

An indignant – and instinctively curious – Roger puts his detective skills into action once again to find out who made the attempt on his life. He soon learns more and more about the strange old house and about the people of the market town of Bristol, some of whom have much more to hide than he would ever have believed.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #12 In the bitter winter of 1478, Roger the Chapman takes to the roads once again to sell his wares. His long-suffering wife Adela is happy to let him go, on condition that he promises to return by the feast of St Patrick in March. Having sold most of his goods, Roger starts on the long road home, keen to surprise Adela by arriving home early for once. However, on the way, he stumbles upon the tiny village of Lower Brockhurst where he is immediately made welcome at the village alehouse. Overhearing conversations regarding the recent disappearance of a local girl, Roger's investigative instincts are instantly aroused, and he determines to stay awhile in order to try and solve the mystery. Had she really just vanished? Or had something much more sinister taken place? But Roger soon realises that there is more to the girl's story than meets the eye, and that the village harbours dark secrets that some people would do anything to prevent being discovered.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #7

Roger the traveling chapman should be on his way home to medieval Bristol after a nice summer's peddling. But a request from his duke to escort a bride en route to her betrothed takes him toward Wells, where the groom and his brother have vanished.

Roger links the disappearances to the discovery of ancient scrolls written in a strange language. But as he deciphers the archaic tongue, he concludes that a still-greater mystery lies at the heart of the brothers’ disappearance.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #19

In fifteenth-century London, the child-king is not the only one under threat.

1483. Amidst the chaos following the death of King Edward IV, Roger the Chapman is called to London to investigate a threat to the Godslove family.

In the past year, there have been two deaths and a mysterious poisoning. Roger dismisses their worries at first but, when another member of the family disappears, he stumbles across a shocking secret that threatens to destroy the entire Godslove family…

Roger the Chapman Mystery #15

1480. When Roger the Chapman discovers he has a hitherto unknown half-brother, he has mixed feelings about the matter. But when John Wedmore is accused of being the young page who, six years earlier, robbed his mistress and murdered a fellow servant, and is thrown into prison, Roger feels obliged to investigate the charge. His enquiries take him into Somerset, to the Manor House at Croxcombe, home of the Bellknapp family.

But his search for the truth is complicated by the sudden and unexpected arrival of Anthony Bellknapp, the elder son – missing, presumed dead for the past eight years – to claim his inheritance. Anthony succeeds in antagonising almost all the Manor’s inhabitants; and when he is murdered, Roger finds himself with too many suspects from which to choose. But he is convinced that the past and present killings are linked; and if he can prove the connection, his half-brother’s name will be cleared.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #16

1481. When the remains of Isabella Linkinhorne, who disappeared twenty years earlier and was known to have had three secret lovers, are discovered on nunnery land, Roger the Chapman is called in.

Faced with the task of tracking down three people of whom he knows next to nothing, Roger nicknames them Caspar, Balthazar and Melchoir after the Magi, the Three Kings of Cologne…

Roger the Chapman Mystery #18

Roger the Chapman undertakes an undercover mission to France in this gripping historical mystery.

Newly returned from an eventful mission to Scotland – and eager to be reunited with his family – Roger the Chapman is far from pleased when Timothy Plummer, Spymaster General to the King, commands him to undertake another mission. He is to accompany the beautiful but manipulative Eloise Gray on a special journey to Paris, pretending to be her husband.

Though Plummer is reluctant to reveal the motive behind this appointment, Roger understands that the French king is making overtures to the Duke of Burgundy on behalf of the Dauphin – a move which could wreck the relationship with England’s staunch ally and most important customer for her wool exports.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #8

The year is 1476, and after a hard winter hawking his wares through the ice and rain, Roger the Chapman is looking forward to spending Christmas in Bristol, enjoying the warm hearth and good food of his mother-in-law Margaret – even if it means the young widower will have to endure her constant matchmaking.

However, Margaret has barely introduced him to her cousin Adela when Roger’s attentions are demanded elsewhere. The long-lost son of a wealthy Bristol weaver, presumed murdered on a visit to London six years before, has miraculously reappeared, to the delight of the old man and to the indignation of Alison Burnett, who refuses to believe that the bedraggled stranger is her brother Clement – the rightful heir to half her father’s fortune. When Alison’s violent objections provoke Alderman Weaver into disinheriting her altogether, she appeals to Roger’s reputation as a solver of mysteries to prove her growing suspicions right.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #17

In the summer of 1482, an English army, under the command of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, invades Scotland in order to win back the border town of Berwick-on-Tweed and to put King James the Third’s renegade younger brother, the Duke of Albany, on the Scottish throne. Albany insists that his old acquaintance, Roger Chapman, be a member of his personal bodyguard, so an astonished and extremely reluctant Roger finds himself, by royal decree, a part of the invading forces.

But during the march northwards, a series of sinister events, centred around the cult figure of the mythical Green Man, makes Roger question Albany’s true motive for requesting his presence. And once in Edinburgh, he is called upon not only to solve a murder, again involving the Green Man, but also begins to realize that his own life could be in danger.

DEATH AND THE CHAPMAN is the first in the series of Roger the Chapman mysteries – the memoirs of an insatiably curious ex-monk whose new vocation is to seek out justice for the victims of medieval miscreants. The political situation in 1471 is complex and the war between the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions still rages. But for Roger the Chapman, who has recently given up a monk’s cell for the freedom to be found peddling his wares on the open road, life goes on much as normal. Until, that is, he gets caught up in the strange disappearance of Clement Weaver, the only son of a wealthy Bristol alderman. It seems that Clement is not the only one to have vanished without trace from the Crossed Hands inn… Roger’s interest is piqued and at the request of the alderman he sets off for the bustle and excitement of London, to find out just how Clement disappeared. It is a journey that carries him to a confrontation with the highest in the land and puts his very life in jeopardy.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #20

In the sultry midsummer of 1483, as Richard of Gloucester begins his bid for the English crown, Roger returns home to Bristol, glad to be out of the capital. But almost immediately, the Duke recalls him to London to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a young boy whose tutor has been found murdered, apparently in a locked room.

It is an investigation which has as its background an ancient British legend, and which will imperil Roger’s life as never before.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #11 July 1478, and business is good for Bristol’s bakers during the lead up to Lammastide – ‘Loaf-mass’, the ancient harvest festival. But the shady Jasper Fairbrother’s baking days are over when he’s found face down with a knife in his back. Suspicion immediately falls on the mysterious Breton who’d arrived that day and had been seen having an argument with Fairbrother. But when it emerges that the Breton is also a suspected Lancastrian spy, Roger the Chapman wonders if suspicion of murder is merely a convenient pretext for the authorities to hunt down the Breton. True, there is no reason for Roger to take an interest in the case, and should he when he ought to be peddling his wares to provide for his new baby boy? But his curiosity and sense of justice is piqued – and before he finds out who murdered the baker, he is to become more than a little personally involved as some of the things nearest and dearest to his heart come under threat.

Roger the Chapman Mystery #21

An important discovery puts Roger the Chapman’s life in danger …

In the autumn of 1483, Roger goes on an errand of mercy to Hereford, where he is caught up in the Duke of Buckingham’s rebellion against the new king, Richard III.

Roger takes refuge in Tintern Abbey, but on his return to Bristol, a murder and a series of house robberies lead him to the eventual discovery of the treasure stolen from the abbey on the night he was there. It also means great danger, not only for himself, but a member of his family …

Roger the Chapman Mystery #22

Christmas, 1483. Roger the Chapman is looking forward to twelve days of peace and celebration with his wife and children in Bristol. The family is particularly excited by the arrival of a troupe of mummers, who will perform their plays in the outer ward of the castle throughout the festival. But the gruesome murders of two of the town's most prominent and venerable citizens, both veterans of the French wars, scupper Roger's hopes as he is gradually drawn into the hunt for the killer.

Once again, Roger finds himself in grave danger, but it is someone else who pays the price of his inability to keep his nose out of matters that do not concern him…

Roger the Chapman Mystery #9

It is October 1477 and Roger the Chapman, newly married and still enjoying wedded bliss, is surprised to find his old, familiar feeling of restlessness returning. Within a month he is setting off, once again, on the ancient ridge road that dissects Dartmoor and heads for Plymouth, driven by some instinct that he is needed there.

Roger accepts a lift from a carter who is going to visit his daughter, Joanna, in the oldest part of the city. Roger’s instinct is soon proven correct when Joanna tells the story of her neighbor, Master Capstick, who was brutally beaten to death. The chief suspect is Capstick’s great-nephew, Beric. Master Capstick’s housekeeper saw Beric leaving the house that morning, his tunic stained with blood, and many more people saw the young man’s wild ride for home on his great black horse. When the King’s men arrived at Beric’s manor house, though, the horse was already in the stables – and Beric had somehow managed to vanish completely.

The local people, quick to fall back on the witchcraft of their ancestors, blame the Saint John’s fern, which if eaten can make a man invisible. Roger, already responsible for solving many difficult mysteries, suspects that there is a more obvious answer and begins his own inquiries. Roger notices that he is not the first to approach witnesses, and when an attempt is made on his life, Roger knows he must be close to a truth that is even more extraordinary than the superstition – if only he can live to tell it.