Michael Jecks

A painter and a murder!

Nick Morris is a portrait painter who seems to paint more cats than people. He’s driven his Morgan (I’m in love already!) up to Devon to do a water color of a house before it’s sold. It’s owner, Derek Swann has an AI business. The house is a Georgian place in the Peak District. Derek wants a painting of the property before the sale’s finalized. Nick’s banker mate got him the job.
(I feel even warmer towards Nick when it’s revealed he always takes his show more Aeropress to make his coffee. Snap, so do I.) I’m loving this guy twice over.
Anyway, things of course aren’t kosher, either at the house or in the town of Ashbourne nearby. Nick meets a varied group of people from Derek’s glamorous, yet guarded assistant, to a couple of bikers, and flamboyant woman Megan who’s staying in one of the holiday chalets he’s booked into. It’s when he’s walking with Megan that they discover the body of a young man. Now Nick’s unfortunately involved in another murder.
Nick does spend his time sketching everything as he walks around, people and places.
Ok, it seems to me that writing about an unlikely sleuth gives Michael Jecks a playful way to incorporate some of his own passions and foibles into the story. What fun!
I loved every word of this cosy mystery and now have to backtrack and read the previous title in this series.

A Severn House ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. show less

Jack Blackjack…always the innocent perpetrator!

Ah Jack! Our beloved, narcissistic opportunist, devoted mostly to his own survival.
Because Jack does have his moments of wanting to be more than he is. Alas those moments are few and always end up differently to how he planned.
His latest misadventures takes up sixteen parts veering between Jack’s point of view and John Blount’s chronicles.
Queen Mary is supposedly pregnant and spymasters serving Mary, Elizabeth and Philip are plotting, show more weaving plans for what comes next. Even those on the same side are confusing each other as they move their strategies forward in secret. And our unlikely, somewhat loveable anti hero Black Jack is caught between them all. Jack’s accused of murdering three people, of course all is happenstance. When he innocently tries to clear himself he trips over so many plots it makes his head spin, which he’s doing already due to the amount of times he receives blows to the head in this tale! (In my opinion Jack’s end is going to come from dementia due to severe brain injury caused by concussion. Or he’ll be quietly eliminated in the alleyways of London. Or be slain by a cuckolded husband. Or…? Hmm! So many possibilities!)
Fascinating that we have Blount recounting his opinions about Jack, and almost has him killed. Well, he does pay Humfrie the assassin for that but Humffries fortunately holds his hand.
Jack accidentally succeeds in both foiling plots and supporting other plots at a dizzying rate. All on the eve of Queen Mary dying and Elizabeth taking over the throne.
Quo Vardis Jack?
I can hardly wait to see what will happen to one of my favorite rogue’s of chance as Elizabeth comes to power.
Underlying this tale is Jeck’s succinct understanding of the various powers and persons at play at this particular time which catapults this tale from reasonably interesting to immensely intriguing! Well done, a fascinating tale of intrigue, happy coincidence and a bumbling assassin whose main concern is self preservation.

A Severn House ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. show less

Jack skirts close to the edge!

Once again pseudo assassin, card sharp and self proclaimed ladies man, Jack Blackjack finds himself caught in a mire of chance and design. It’s 1556 and the word’s abroad that Lady Elizabeth Tudor’s comptroller Sir Thomas Parry has been taken to the Tower under orders from Queen Mary. Jack’s worried that he might be caught up in the purge as his master and employer John Blount works for Parry.
Jack’s survival, being always front and center of his show more concerns, has him fleeing to France via a circuitous route. He takes to the road ahead of rumour about his imminent capture by the Queen’s Officers, and we catch up with him at the Green Cock Inn at Okehamptom, Devonshire on the edge of Dartmoor. Of course, things go haywire. (When do they ever not?) Jack ends up being accused of murdering a miner. Not just any miner but Daniell Vowell, leader of a powerful miner’s group. Jack escapes into the wilds of the moors where he comes into contact with the tin miners and an outlaw group, the Gubbingses. Up on the high moor justice comes by way of the Lydford Law. Rough justice metered out by the miners. Jack’s surely first in line!
As always I’m open mouthed at Jack’s belief in his abilities, his self assurance about his good looks, his surety about his worldliness and of course his superiority. He’s a preening cockerel who falls from one dastardly situation into another, and yet always lands on his feet. An on the edge of feral, puss-in-boots character, who’s self importance and vanity just keeps tripping him up. His confirmed assurance that all women see him as desirable not only demonstrates his almost psychotic belief in his own charm and appeal but invariably leads him into trouble.
Despite his horrendous ego, I am exceedingly fond of this reprobate idiot, even if it’s just watching him falling into abysmal situations by his own lack of foresight and flail around in the swampy mess of circumstances. He’s the supreme survivalist. Honestly I’d back him in as the winner in any episode of Survivor. His self interest and survival instincts coupled with pure luck and chance are unparalleled. There’s always some sort of redemptive factor that keeps Jack from death, but the leeway is exceedingly narrow. Maybe I’m addicted to finding out how he’s going to come around—once again! Medieval noir or rapscallion extraordinaire? Whichever, it’s all accidental. Jack is only a hero in his own mind. Although something about him charms enough people that he inevitably comes through tight situations and then proceeds on his merry, unmindful way.
I found Jecks’ informative postscript about the power the miners’ groups had in these times, in particular due to the monies their work brought to the royal purse, fascinating and of course a telling point about the self interest of the monarchy.

A Canongate Severn House ARC via NetGalley show less

Jack’s back!

Ah Jack! The trials and tribulations of this vain, self deceived rascal never fail to amaze me. He attracts trouble like bees to a honeypot. After his recent troubles with the tin miners of Cornwall, Jack’s headed away from London to France on the off chance that he’s bound to be caught up with the wrong side of the political machinations of his masters.
He fled to the Cathedral town of Exeter, where he learns that Queen Mary is still in power, Lady Elizabeth is not in the show more tower, and he, as he is employed circuitously by the Lady Elizabeth as an assassin, can safely head for home.
Swaggering around town, sure of his own importance as a elegant ”man of London,” disdainful of the plebeians he encounters, well naturally pride comes before a fall. His purse is stolen, he finds the dead body of the ex priest Roger Lane. Powerful merchants and their henchman take an interest in him. He finds some fair weather friends, and he’s pursued by an attractive young thing with marriage on her mind (shudder!). This is not all, (because of our surety that Jack always goes from one torrid situation to another), Jack sets sail for London only to find himself betrayed.
He returns (miraculously by sheer good luck—again!) to Exeter, and after another set of extenuating circumstances finally flees Exeter for London and home! I’m exhausted and Jack even more so!
I swear Jack has more lives than a cat. Somehow by sheer dumb luck he always lands on his feet, His self absorption never ceases to amaze me. His drinking and womanising always trips him up.
Mind you he also can show kindness to the unexpected person, like Edith the child who first tried to rob him.
A somewhat, loveable rogue with an inconsistent conscience is perhaps one way to describe him.
Funny and horrifying. I shake my head continually. You either love him or hate him.

A Severn House ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. show less