≫ Download The Templar Penance Knights Templar Michael Jecks 9780755301713 Books

The Templar Penance Knights Templar Michael Jecks 9780755301713 Books

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The Templar Penance Knights Templar Michael Jecks 9780755301713 Books

Not one of my favorites. Too many secondary story lines. Story tended to wander like some of the characters. Did not hold my interest.


Tags : The Templar's Penance (Knights Templar) [Michael Jecks] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock have been granted leave to go on pilgrimage, both seeking solace after the recent,Michael Jecks,The Templar's Penance (Knights Templar),Headline,0755301714,Mystery & Detective - General,Furnshill, Baldwin, Sir (Fictitious character),Great Britain - History - 1066-1687,Historical fiction,Mystery fiction,Puttock, Simon (Fictitious character),West Country (England),Crime & mystery,ENGLISH MYSTERY & SUSPENSE FICTION,FICTION Historical General,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Fiction Mystery & Detective General,General Adult,Great BritainBritish Isles,Historical - General,Historical mysteries,MASS MARKET,MysterySuspense

The Templar Penance Knights Templar Michael Jecks 9780755301713 Books Reviews

This is a pretty decent Knights Templar fiction murder mystery.
It is summer 1323, Sir Baldwin and Simon are about to leave on a pilgrimage. They are going to travel across Europe to Santiago de Compostela. Foreign travel is dangerous even for well armed men, and attacks on pilgrims are common place, but an even greater menace hangs over the city of Santiago.

For those who have not ready any of Michael Jecks medieval novels I can recommend them heartily. This novel takes Simon and Sir Baldwin away from their West Country environment but loses nothing of its mystery and suspense. If you like medieval mysteries, these are as good as any around.
Pilgrimages are for penance and a person in penance is a person with something to hide. From Chaucer's time to today the setting of the holy pilgrimage is a storyteller's dream when it comes to believably mixing diverse characters and delving into the various psychological struggles and temptations we face as human beings. In "The Templar's Penance" author Michael Jecks places the now familiar pilgrimage in an exotic setting as the main character Sir Baldwin, an English knight and former templar, goes on a pilgrimage of penance to the Cathredal of Compostela in Spain. Traveling with Baldwin is his friend Simon, a Devonshire bailiff, and a good man to know in a fight.

After the hardships of a pilgrimage taken over sea and land, once in the rough and tumble town of Compostela they inadvertently stumble onto the horrific corpse of a young woman brutally raped and murdered. Judging themselves to be seasoned crime detectives, Baldwin and Simon offer to assist the local investigator, the pesquisidore, Munio. But they find themselves increasingly baffled as the temper in town grows more chaotic. Another seemingly unconnected murder ensues along with random violent attacks upon the other pilgrims. The machinations to steal a saintly relic throws up so great a smoke screen that nearly all of the pilgrims appear to have a motive for murder. Each man's mettle of mind, body and spirit is tested as they struggle to solve this mystery in a strange land.

Jecks is a fine storyteller with a great love and knowledge of the medieval period. There is a lot of action, but also a lot of brutal violence. Thankfully, Jecks, unlike modern crime fiction, does not linger lovingly over every terrible bloody detail. But disquietingly, at least in this fictitious medieval world, people die left and right, often for no good reason. The characters of Sir Charles and Paul especially disturbed me. During a bar fight they kill everyone present. Particularly chilling was just before leaving Paul goes back into the tavern to clean up a loose end; he swiftly kills a child who had hidden during the carnage, but who was the only remaining witness. The reader meets them as psychopathic killers but in the conclusion of the story they are traveling back to England with Baldwin and Simon and are treated much more sympathetically. Jecks goes to great lengths to round out each character with a personal history, but I never could drum up much sympathy for these two as I could for the albeit brutal, but much mistreated renegade peasantry.

Now you will remind me that life in the Middle Ages was not rosy and I agree. If you often find cozy mysteries to be too syrupy, and hate laying awake at nights reliving modern crime fictions' overly enthusiastic descriptions of blood and gore, then you will happily discover Jecks' tale to offer a palatable mixture of complexity and realism along with satisfying the reader's need for reassurance that justice is done by all.
After reading this, I wavered between giving this either a 3 star or a 4 star rating; in the end I opted for 4 as the problems this has are minimal in comparison with the really excellent aspects to the tale.

I always remember reading a column in a newspaper by an order priest; he was a great historian as well, not only full stop but of the church, and I remember one time he said that in the pre-reformation years that Europe, despite obvious differences across the continent in culture, language (with Latin a great equaliser though), topology and climate, it was still nevertheless one big country. After reading this, I not only see what he meant, but can see that the author, Michael Jecks, knows this too and has managed to have this embedded in the pages.

Ok, new to the series. Will I read more? Go back and start in order? Yep, and look forward to doing so.

The central character, Sir Baldwin Furnhill; new to me but no doubt known by now by millions as this is the 15th outing in the series, is a strong, robust believable knight of the middle ages - a good man 'though far, far from perfect, blood on his hands (although I'll have to read earlier tales to find how much, if any in reality in terms of genuine guilt/culpability), goes off to show remorse to the Almighty, on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. He takes with him his friend, Bailiff, Simon Puttock. The two friends, as most pairings of friends are, are different yet similar, and thus compatible. But here is to be found some of the lighter moments - typical Englishman Simon is a little like a grandad from Wigan, going to Marbella for the first time after 60 consecutive holidays in Blackpool he doesn't like the heat, moans initially about the vittles, and is equally in Wigan grandad (or Peter Kay) mode when trying to communicate with the locals. But at the same time, his ill-fitting constitution and at times attitude also cause him and his friends old and new, some big problems too. However, smoothing things over and getting them through, is Sir Baldwin, old campaigner, loves warmer climes and as well as reminiscing much in the way old timers going back to Anzio etc do, his greater linguistic skills allow him to be of use when the more serious stuff begins to happen in and around Santiago de Compostela.

Basically, while trying to mind their own business and pray and do penance, two murders happen around them; although Baldwin and Simon are of course out of their jurisdiction, they end up being involved in the ensuing investigations; complicating this is the appearance of an old friend of Sir Baldwin's who has obviously known better days.

It reads very well, the characters, the places and situations all hold one's interest. As this is a tale involving knights sworn to serve the church and their creator, there is of course the almost requisite bawdiness, and here the author I think has done very well in only delving into this in any degree of detail in a few instances, with much being gleaned by more general references than graphic depictions; same for the expletives, there are some mild ones, and this simply allows us to guess/assume the reality would have been a lot worse. Although some would disagree I know, I think these minimal takes on things unsavoury allows for at least a slightly younger readership.

Ok, the downers. A little too repetitive, both in dialogue and narrative when re-capping / summing up what's what, who is what and when etc. And although the book is a reasonable length, at vital points in the story, it is nevertheless a little thin, a few more pages of exposition and/or dialogue to cover same would have been useful.

However, that's just a grump being grumpy; overall, this is a great story and well worth the read.
Being involved in living a life of penance, I was interested in reading this but was disgusted with the sexual descriptions and references in this book. Totally unneeded. I think the author was trying to reach an audience who likes this sort of thing. I threw out the book before finishing it. The author has written earlier mystery books without these explicit references. So why are they in this one except to make more sales to an audience wanting them? Sorry, but I don't need that.
A good read.
The Templar's Penance rounds out the understanding of what the principal characters were like, deep inside, while placing the reader in the middle of the action.
Not one of my favorites. Too many secondary story lines. Story tended to wander like some of the characters. Did not hold my interest.