I was aware of Michael Jecks and his series characters Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Futtock through the “Medieval Murderers” series of interlinked novellas by various writers with historical series characters, so when I ran across "The Prophecy of Death" in a used bookstore, I picked it up. Turns out that this is the *25th* novel in this series, which means that there were likely all sorts of relationship and character quirks that I didn’t get, but no matter. The story, about the friends’ search for a stolen “holy oil” that Edward II is convinced will reverse his unfortunate reign and restore him to a position of strength, carries off its 1325 setting quite wonderfully, and the characters and experiences they encounter are all well drawn and compelling; the reader wants to know what happens next, always a good sign in a mystery! I’m not sure I’ll go back to pick up the previous 24 books (or go forward from this one, as it was published in 2008), but if I see any in another used bookstore, I will pick them up. ( )

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. ( )