Michael Jecks' The Last Templar (1995), the first in a series of "Medieval West Country Mysteries", fails so spectacularly on so many levels, from simple word choice to characterization to plotting, that it seems as if Jecks had never written a novel before. In fact, it seems as if Jecks had never read a mystery novel before.
Why then did someone publish it? Who would publish thirty one others, the latest as recently as two thousand and thirteen?
No daggers out of four, and I'm pretty sure Jecks owes me a dagger for actually finishing the book.
Tony, I have to completely disagree with you here. While not as strong as the novels that follow - he really finds his feet with the third book, I thought - this is, in my opinion an extremely strong debut novel, and it was primarily the characters that brought me back for book two. But, of course, every reader sees something different when they read a book.
ReplyDelete