La aparición del cuerpo de Peter Bruther, siervo de William Beauscyr, en medio del bosque desencadena una trama llena de asesinatos, chantajes y venganzas en plena Inglaterra del siglo XIV, una época en la que los esclavos que huían de sus señores para recuperar su libertad eran brutalmente castigados. A este panorama se enfrentan el caballero templario Baldwin Furnshill y Simon Puttock, alguacil de Lydford.

The body of a runaway villein turned tin miner is found hanging from a tree when relations between the miners and landowners are particularly tense. Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Simon Puddock investigate in an effort to keep the peace.

A good mystery. I like that solving the mysteries in these books involves a genuine collaboration between Baldwin and Simon with occasional input from their servants rather than a detective and sidekick. This one also had lots of interesting information about the rights of miners in the feudal system able to defy local landowners because the King was the miners' direct lord. ( )

Synopsis: A peon leaves his master to become a tin miner, which makes the peon a free man answerable only to the king. This doesn't sit well and the bailiff is called in to arbitrate. Before much can be done, the peon is strangled and then hanged. Sir Baldwin and Bailiff Simon must determine who the murderer is before a civil war erupts on the moors.
Review: This writer is getting better in that there isn't quite as much background and description of the scenes as in precious books. This was also a rather convoluted crime with lots of possible suspects. ( )

I have virtually all of Jecks' works. I am new to Library Things so am not going to go into great detail except to say that he has given me many hours of reading pleasure and largley give him 5 stars. Although it has been some years since I found one of the later stories, I was, at the time, prompted to find the first in the series, etc. It is grand that both his former publisher and his new publisher (Simon & Schuster UK) are republishing his books in print and other formats. I have given Jecks 5 star reviews over the years since I stumbled on to him. As to his research, historically it is from primary sources wherein he writes plausible tales into the historical setting. ( )

I was drawn to this book becuae it is set in the South West of England, where I live, which is a place not often rendered in fiction. It is also set in Medieval times, which is also quite unusual, even within the genre of historical crime fiction to which this book belongs.
More specifically, the plot of the book focuses on the tensions that existed on Dartmoor amongst the different groups of people that lived and worked there. A wealthy landowner has had one of his villeins run away, and claim sanctuary amongst the community of tin miners that work the land under the protection of the King. This man is later found hanged in one of the twisted, stunted woods that locals claim is inhabited by Crockern, the evil spirit of the moors. Already on the scene, handily, to investiagte the claims of the wealthy landowner over his former servant, are the bailiff of Lydford, Simon Puttock, and his friend the ex-knight Templar Sir Baldwin Furnshill. They begin to investigate the crime, uncovering as they do lots of simmering resentments between the two groups that gave plenty of people a motive for murder....
This book is the third in a long running series featuring the bailiff and his knight friend, set in the Westcountry, but this is the first one I have read. It was a perfectly pleasent and enjoyable historical crime novel, but with nothing to really mark it out as an outstanding example of the genre. The period detail seems realistic, if not overly detailed, and the setting is well drawn, if not hugely evocative, even for someone that knows the areas being written about. The characters, especially of the two investigators, do not seem well drawn enough to make them memorable - I kept being unsure which of the two of them was doing certain things, as they seemed so interchangeable. The same could be said for the leaders of the two main groups of protagonists. However, it was a reasonably well plotted, enjoyable read with a satisfying conclusion that may interest fans of this genre. ( )