[review] The Dead Don't Wait by Michael Jecks * book frolic

The Dead Don't Wait by Michael Jecks

The Dead Don’t Wait is an interesting historical mystery set during the reign of Queen Mary. This is the fourth book in the series, but the first one that I have read.

Title: The Dead Don’t Wait
Author: Michael Jecks
Series: A Bloody Mary Mystery #4
First Published: November 5, 2019
Publisher: Creme de la Crime (Severn House)
Categories: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Acquired: from the publisher via NetGalley

*** Thank you to the publisher, Severn House, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***

April, 1555. A priest has been stabbed to death in St Botolph, a small village near London. The body was left by the roadside and Jack Blackjack is accused of murder. Jack works to clear his name and find out who really killed the priest. But this is an investigation where nothing is as it seems. Was it a random attack by a desperate outlaw, or do the answers lie in the murdered priest’s past? As he tries to unravel the murder, Jack finds that nobody seems to be telling the real story. And there are those that want to see Jack shut down … permanently

The Dead Don’t Wait has me conflicted

The Dead Don't Wait by Michael Jecks

This book should have been very high on my favourites list. It has everything that I enjoy in a story – a historical fiction set during a Tudor monarch’s reign, a tough-to-unravel murder mystery, hidden treasure and lots of colourful characters.

But one thing kept me from enjoying this story to its fullest – I really didn’t care much for the main character, Jack Blackjack. While I understand that he’s written as “not your typical protagonist”, he just rubs me the wrong way. I don’t know if it’s because he spends too much time trying to talk some wench into bed (one who’s already tried to rob him once already), or because he can’t seem to get rid of some stupid and annoying moneylenders (they just popped up a few too many times for my liking) or because he needs to hire an assassin to watch his back (considering he’s supposed to be an assassin himself). Jack just seems to lurch from one bad situation to the next, and gets out of scraps by sheer luck or fast talking.

As for the murder victim, he didn’t seem like a very nice man, so it was hard to feel any sympathy for him or to work up much interest in seeing his murder solved.

That being said, there are lots of great things that this book has going for it. For starters, the writing is incredibly solid – the town, characters and dialogue are all well done and very descriptive. We get some great insight into how difficult life was during this period, when people were being told to change their religion on the whims of the ruling monarch. It was a time of survival and it wasn’t easy to make a living – you could feel how tough life was for these people.

I also appreciated that I could pick up this book (the fourth in the series) and didn’t feel like I was missing anything. This book works perfectly well as a standalone.

I will give Jack Blackjack a second chance

While I can understand how some people have described Jack Blackjack as a “charming rogue”, I just found him an annoying idiot. Maybe this will end up one of those “Great book, but just not for me” titles. However, I did enjoy the writing and story enough that I will give this series another chance. I plan on picking up the first book in the series and starting from the beginning. Perhaps if I get to know Jack from the first book, I’ll be more charmed than annoyed with him!