Michael Jecks

Preorder the next gripping instalment in the stunning Vintaine series by Michael Jecks. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden.

1346. Calais. Berenger Fripper and the men of his Vintaine are stationed near the ancient port city, a French city under English siege. They are here to capture the city from and use it as a staging-post for future incursions into France.

France, 1356. Ten years have passed since the battle of Crécy, and the English fighters are still abroad, laying siege to cities, towns and villages. Meanwhile the Prince of Wales raids across the continent to draw King John into a battle for sovereignty over all France.

July 1556. Jack Blackjack spends the night at a Devon tavern, agrees to a game of dice - and ends up accused of murder....

London, 1556. Hal Westmecott, one of the city's most feared executioners, reckons Jack Blackjack owes him a favour - and now he's come to collect his dues.....

1325: Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Simon Puttock are sent to France to guard the King’s son....

Bailiff Simon Puttoc’s servant, Hugh, has been granted leave to look after his wife, Constance, and her son. But their happy time is to be short-lived, for a gang of men break into their home and attack Hugh’s family....

Forty years ago, Exeter's Cathedral Close was the scene of a vicious ambush. Afterwards, the bodies left lying in their blood bore witness to the conflicts tearing at the heart of the cathedral itself....

Exeter, 1323. A strange man is entering people’s houses at night, causing panic amongst householders. Although many had thought him harmless, now he seems to have committed murder....

Roger Mortimer was once the king’s most able commander, but now he is his most hated enemy. Escaping from the tower, Mortimer made his way to France and has hired an assassin to murder the king - but others have the same idea....

1325: in the gilded cage that is the Palace of Westminster, Isabella, Queen of England, is troubled by court intrigue. Her jealous husband, Edward II, has removed all her privileges, her regal status and even her children....

1324: a disastrous autumn looms large. As the leaves begin to fall there are those who wish to bring the kingdom down as well. In Dartmouth, a man is found lying dead in the road....

1325: England is a hotbed of paranoia under the reign of the unpredictable Edward II and his lover, Sir Hugh le Despenser. When the queen’s lady-in-waiting is slaughtered and a man’s body, hideously mutilated, is discovered behind the throne, the king demands to be avenged....

1325: King Edward II’s reign seems cursed. Although he has rejected his wife, Queen Isabella, he still relies on her. Even now, she is in France to negotiate peace with her brother, King Charles IV of France - but he fears for the outcome....

1326: Queen Isabella refuses to leave France and humiliates her husband, King Edward II, by flaunting her adulterous relationship with the arch-traitor Sir Roger Mortimer....

When King Edward II is informed that his wife, Queen Isabella, has defied him and remained in France with their son, he flies into a rage. It is Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock who have broken the news to him and are now no longer in the king’s favour....

Cut adrift by British Intelligence at the end of the Cold War, Jack Case is called back into service following 9/11. In a quiet Alaskan backwater, a man named Danny Lewin has committed suicide. But this was no ordinary suicide....

January, 1554. Light-fingered Jack Blackjack knows he's not going to have a good day when he wakes with a sore head next to a dead body in a tavern's yard....

Professional assassin Jack Blackjack has been dispatched to the palace of Woodstock, where Queen Mary's half sister, Princess Elizabeth, is being kept under close guard....

1555. A priest has been stabbed to death in the village of St Botolph, his body left to rot by the roadside, and Jack Blackjack stands accused of his murder. As well as clearing his name, Jack has his own reasons for finding out who really killed the priest....