1. The Last Templar
Devon, 1316. Bailiff Simon Puttock examines a body found in a burned cottage and expects an accident, but Sir Baldwin de Furnshill recognises evidence that the victim was killed before the fire. A second death, in which an abbot is burned alive, confirms that someone is…
2. The Merchant’s Partner
During a severe winter, healer Agatha Kyteler is found murdered and mutilated in a hedge. Superstitious neighbours readily call her a witch, and suspicion falls on a young man who disappears when the hue and cry begins. Simon and Baldwin are unconvinced by a solution built…
3. A Moorland Hanging
Devon, 1318. Peter Bruther escapes his lord’s control by claiming the legal privileges granted to Dartmoor tin miners. His new status threatens landowner Sir William Beauscyr, angers other miners and suggests a route to freedom that further serfs might follow. Peter is then found hanging from…
4. The Crediton Killings
A band of mercenaries arrives in Crediton as the Bishop of Exeter visits the town. When a servant girl is found dead inside a chest and the soldiers’ treasure disappears, hostility grows between townspeople, churchmen and armed strangers who are accustomed to settling disputes by force.…
5. The Abbot’s Gibbet
Tavistock, 1319. The annual fair is interrupted by the discovery of a decapitated body whose missing head prevents immediate identification. The return of a long-exiled townsman creates another source of danger, because recognition could expose him to execution for his earlier crimes. Simon and Baldwin work…
6. The Leper’s Return
Crediton, 1320. A goldsmith is murdered in his hall, and rumour rapidly blames the inhabitants of a nearby leper hospital. Ralph of Houndselow, the hospital’s new master, struggles to protect his community as fear and anger make collective violence increasingly likely. Baldwin and Simon seek the…
7. Squire Throwleigh’s Heir
Spring 1321. Squire Roger of Throwleigh dies in a riding accident, leaving his five-year-old son Herbert to inherit a valuable estate. The child’s grieving mother rejects him, while relatives and dependants begin calculating how his minority will alter their own prospects. When Herbert is killed beneath…
8. Belladonna at Belstone
Belstone convent is divided by a struggle over leadership, discipline and money. Sister Moll has learned the private failings of other members of the house and uses that knowledge without discretion; when she is found dead, almost every faction has reason to welcome her silence. With…
9. The Traitor of St Giles
A convicted felon has claimed sanctuary and must walk the king’s highway to the coast and permanent exile. He and a wealthy knight are later found dead, apparently after killing one another, but the knight’s horse, money and political papers have disappeared. Baldwin and Simon reconstruct…
10. The Boy-Bishop’s Glovemaker
Exeter, Christmas 1321. Ralph Glover, a respected maker of gloves for the bishop, is murdered before the cathedral’s boy-bishop celebrations. His apprentice is arrested, but a second death within the cathedral close shows that the first accusation has not contained the danger. Simon and Baldwin investigate…
11. The Tournament of Blood
Okehampton, spring 1322. A tournament is being built around display, gambling and noble rivalry when the moneylender financing it is beaten to death. The carpenter responsible for the stands is then killed in the same manner, suggesting that the violence outside the lists has its own…
12. The Sticklepath Strangler
Summer 1322. Children find the remains of a girl who disappeared years earlier near Sticklepath. Further concealed deaths suggest that the village has protected a serial killer, while stories of a vampire allow residents to place responsibility on supernatural forces rather than on someone they know.…
13. The Devil’s Acolyte
Tavistock, autumn 1322. Wine disappears from the abbey’s stores and a man is found dead on the moors, recalling a local story in which novices were destroyed after stealing from an abbot. Further losses suggest that the legend is being deliberately revived. Simon and Baldwin investigate…
14. The Mad Monk of Gidleigh
At an isolated Dartmoor chapel, the young priest Mark begins a relationship with Mary, the miller’s daughter. After she is found stabbed and pregnant, his anger and secrecy make him the obvious suspect, but her other admirers and the local lord also have reasons to fear…
15. The Templar’s Penance
After the deaths at Gidleigh, Baldwin and Simon travel as pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. A young woman is raped and murdered outside the city, and local officials ask the experienced English investigators to help distinguish a traveller’s crime from violence rooted in the surrounding community.…
16. The Outlaws of Ennor
Returning from Galicia, Baldwin and Simon are separated by storm and piracy near the Isles of Scilly. Simon reaches Ennor and is ordered to investigate the murder of a hated tax collector; Baldwin is washed ashore on St Nicholas, whose inhabitants are already being blamed for…
17. The Tolls of Death
Back on the mainland, Baldwin and Simon stop at Cardinham in Cornwall after a woman and her two sons are found dead. What first appears to be a household tragedy becomes part of a larger pattern involving tolls, travel and the control of movement through the…
18. The Chapel of Bones
Exeter, 1323. New deaths in the cathedral close revive the memory of Walter de Lecchelade, a churchman murdered there forty years earlier during a violent dispute. The chapel built in response to that crime has preserved evidence, grudges and institutional shame. Baldwin and Simon investigate whether…
19. The Butcher of St Peter’s
Exeter is alarmed by a man who enters houses at night and is feared for his interest in children. When a father is killed while apparently defending his family, public pressure demands an immediate arrest and execution of the suspected intruder. Baldwin and Simon question whether…
20. A Friar’s Bloodfeud
Violence reaches Simon’s own household when his servant Hugh returns to care for his wife Constance and their child. Their home is attacked, leaving deaths and injuries that appear to be part of a feud whose origins extend beyond the immediate victims. Baldwin and Simon pursue…
21. The Death Ship of Dartmouth
Dartmouth faces rumours of renewed piracy after the St John is discovered damaged and without its crew. A man found dead in the road is dismissed as a drunken casualty, but Simon and Baldwin suspect that the body and the abandoned vessel belong to the same…
22. The Malice of Unnatural Death
London, 1324. Roger Mortimer has escaped from the Tower, and the government fears plots against Edward II. When two men are found dead in the streets, one carrying a dangerous message, the Bishop of Exeter asks Baldwin and Simon to investigate before the information reaches the…
23. Dispensation of Death
Westminster, 1325. Baldwin and Simon accompany the Bishop of Exeter into the royal household, where a queen’s attendant is killed and a mutilated body is discovered behind the throne. Edward II demands results from investigators who have little protection against the court’s competing factions. The mystery…
24. The Templar, the Queen and Her Lover
In 1325 Isabella of France travels to Paris to negotiate with her brother Charles IV over English lands. Baldwin accompanies her, but a servant is murdered shortly after arrival and Baldwin’s dagger is left beside the body, making the investigator himself the evidence in an international…
25. The Prophecy of Death
Baldwin and Simon return from France carrying urgent information for Edward II, but their service draws them deeper into the king’s attempt to secure his authority. A prophecy concerning sacred oil and royal legitimacy becomes valuable to factions seeking either to strengthen or to undermine him.…
26. The King of Thieves
France, 1325. Baldwin and Simon join the young Prince Edward’s entourage as he performs homage to Charles IV for England’s French possessions. Isabella and Roger Mortimer have gathered opponents of the English king, and the prince’s household is placed under the queen’s control. A murder reveals…
27. No Law in the Land
Returning to Devon, Baldwin and Simon learn that Edward II has withdrawn his favour after hearing their report about Isabella’s defiance. Royal weakness has encouraged local knights and outlaws, and a lord near Crediton now uses armed force with little fear of punishment. The murder of…
28. The Bishop Must Die
In 1326 Isabella remains in France with Roger Mortimer and prepares an alliance in Hainault, while Treasurer Walter de Stapledon becomes a visible representative of Edward II’s government. Threats against the bishop suggest that opposition to the king is moving from rumour towards organised violence. Baldwin…
29. The Oath
England, 1326. Isabella and Mortimer’s invasion overturns loyalties across the kingdom as nobles, officials and soldiers decide whether to abandon Edward II. Amid the wider conflict, an entire family is murdered, followed by further deaths that appear to be driven by vengeance and concealed obligation. Simon…
30. King’s Gold
Late 1326. London is in disorder and Edward II is a prisoner as Isabella and Mortimer consolidate victory. Baldwin and Simon are assigned to guard the deposed king, but their different judgements about duty and justice place a strain on the friendship that has sustained the…
31. City of Fiends
Exeter, 1327. Edward II has escaped from custody, and Baldwin and Simon ride to report their failure. They reach a city already divided by the killing of a clergyman and a servant, deaths that threaten renewed conflict within the cathedral close and municipal community. The investigation…
32. Templar’s Acre
Acre, 1291. The crusader port is the last major mainland stronghold of the Latin East, crowded with soldiers, merchants and refugees as al-Ashraf Khalil’s Mamluk army prepares its assault. A young Baldwin arrives inexperienced and uncertain, before he has become the investigator known in Devon. The…