Roger the Chapman tales

Find the killer. Solve the case. Save yourself. Roger the Chapman has been royally, commanded to escort a King's messenger, Philip Underwood, who is carrying a vital dispatch aboard his ship in Plymouth. When the messenger is, murdered with Roger's own cudgel, a Plymouth cloak, he is appalled to find himself the chief suspect in a world of double-dealing, sin and political chicanery. Discovering Underwood's shady past of slave dealing, however,...

A town paralyzed with fear, two children gone missing. Roger's most difficult case yet... April 1475. As Roger approaches the thriving village of Totnes, danger crackles in the air. A pack of cutthroats wanders the forest after a night of pillaging, and Roger barely manages to hide from them in the brush. He soon learns that the marauding band has been terrorizing the countryside for weeks. And worse, they are believed to be responsible for the disappearance...

The year is 1476, and after a hard winter hawking his wares through the ice and rain, Roger the Chapman is looking forward to spending Christmas in Bristol, enjoying the warm hearth and good food of his mother-in-law Margaret-even if it means the young widower will have to endure her constant matchmaking. However, Margaret has barely introduced him to her cousin Adela when Roger's attentions are demanded elsewhere. The long-lost son of a wealthy...

King Edward IV trembles as he decides the fate of his sibling. And Richard, Duke of Gloucester, plots, trying to find a way to save George from being put to death by their eldest -- and powerful -- brother, the King. So when the Duke sees his old and loyal servant, monk-turned-travelling salesman Roger the Chapman, among the crowd at the trial he recognises that he has a chance.If only the chapman-sleuth could prove that the kinswoman of the King's...

In the bitter winter of 1478, Roger the Chapman takes to the roads once again to sell his wares. His long-suffering wife Adela is happy to let him go, on condition that he promises to return by the feast of St Patrick in March. Having sold most of his goods, Roger starts on the long road home, keen to surprise Adela by arriving home early for once. However, on the way, he stumbles upon the tiny village of Lower Brockhurst where he is immediately made...

Things aren't going too well at home for Roger the Chapman and his wife, Adela. Their fourth child has died only days after being born and Roger fails to conceal his feelings of relief at having one less mouth to feed. Adela naturally resents his attitude and their bitter arguments become increasingly commonplace. Roger decides that to maintain harmony at home the best thing he can do is take up his pack and cudgel and once again leave Bristol to...

When the remains of Isabella Linkinhorne, who disappeared twenty years earlier and was known to have had three secret lovers, are discovered on nunnery land, Roger the Chapman is called in. Faced with the task of tracking down three people of whom he knows next to nothing, Roger nicknames them Caspar, Balthazar and Melchoir after the Magi, the Three Kings of Cologne…

A Roger the Chapman Mystery - Roger the Chapman is far from pleased when the King's Spymaster General commands him to accompany the manipulative Eloise Gray on a journey to Paris, pretending to be her husband. Roger guesses that the French king is making overtures to the Duke of Burgundy on behalf of the Dauphin – which could wreck the relationship with England's staunch ally and most important customer for her wool exports . . .

As Richard of Gloucester begins his bid for the English crown in 1483, Roger investigates the disappearance of a young boy whose tutor has been found murdered in an apparently locked room.

Christmas, 1483: Roger the Chapman is looking forward to twelve days of peace and celebration with his wife and children in Bristol. The family is particularly excited by the arrival of a troupe of mummers, who will perform their plays in the outer ward of the castle throughout the festival. But the gruesome murders of two of the town's most prominent and venerable citizens, both veterans of the French wars, scupper Roger's hopes as he is gradually...