Search - The Last Templar

1314 Paris. Pope Clement has destroyed the Order of Knights Templar, wrongly persuaded of their corruption. Watching through a veil of tears as his friends die at the stake, a surviving knight swears vengeance on their accusers.
1316 Devon. The newly appointed bailiff of Lydford Castle, Simon Puttock, is called to a village where a charred body has been found in a burned-out cottage. Unaccustomed to violence in this peaceful area, Simon assures it's accidental death -- but Sir Baldwin Furnshill, recently returned from abroud, quickly convinces hiim that the victim had been killed before the fire began.
As Simon and the astute yet strangely reticent knight piece together the evidence, word comes of another murder, more horrible by far, for in this case the victim was undoubtedly burned alive. Are the two incidents connected -- and will the killers strike again?
The colours and smells of fourteenth-century Devon come vividly to life in this riveting tale of petty jealousy, burning passion and brutal revenge.

This is a historical fiction book set in Medevial times. It's not the greatest book I've read, but still very good. The first book in the series. I will be reading the The Merchant's Partner soon.
The Order of the Knights have been destroyed ( burned alive ) and the people are living in terror because there are other murders happening around the countryside. What will become of them?

Michael Jecks seems to have found a following in America, while novels by many other excellent British historical-mystery writers remain hard to find here. Judging by this first book, I don't understand the accolades Jecks has received. Plodding and dull, with little understanding of the Middle Ages, the book left me unwilling to try any more by this author.

There is very little mystery in the novel, just a story that drags on and on as it follows a dim-witted king's baliff all over the West Country. Simon Puttock does not so much solve a mystery as stumble onto a solution. And the resolution of the mystery makes the set-up for the rest of the series hard to accept.

Leave this one on the shelf and read some Ellis Peters instead.

Really, really enjoyed this book, I would like to read more by this author. Fascinating!

If you love Dan Brown... go back and read him again! This book is a poor imitation. Badly written with an overly predictable plot that reads like a screenplay treatment for a Bruce Willis movie. The characters are written as stereotypes (the tough Irish Catholic FBI agent who teams with the beautiful blonde archeologist to solve the mystery of the ages is just a little too much to buy into). The climatic ending could best be described as trite and cliched. I bought this book and wish that I could get my money back! One star.

This 14th century mystery is the first in a series about a British bailiff trying to solve a case of death by fire, while assisted by a knight who may or may not have some of the answers. Lots of historical detail.