The Boy-Bishop's Glovemaker (2001) - Plot & Excerpts
Originally published on my blog here in January 2002.I found this novel from Jecks' Simon Puttock series more difficult to get into than most of them; it doesn't seem to flow quite so easily. The setting is rather different, being the city of Exeter rather than the wilds of medieval Dartmoor, and this may have something to do with it.The novel is a Christmas mystery, revolving around one of the quainter customs of the time. In what may well have been a descendant of the Roman Saturnalia festival, it was the practice in many cathedrals to elect one of the boy choristers as a pseudo bishop for the day just after Christmas; this (the Feast of the Innocents) was traditionally a day of riotous and boisterous misbehaviour. In Exeter, this celebration also included a gift of gloves by the cathedral to nominees of the bishop (the real bishop), and Baldwin and his friend Simon Puttock are both to be honoured. However, when they (fairly reluctantly) arrive in Exeter they are asked to help in the investigations into a murder in the cathedral close, and begin to see connections with other recent killings in the town, including that of the glover commissioned to make the ornate bejewelled gloves for the presentation.Perhaps I was just not really in the mood for this kind of mystery. I don't think that The Boy-Bishop's Glovemaker is poorer than the rest of the series and I did at least become interested in the puzzle by the middle of the novel. One to try reading again in a couple of years.
'The Boy-Bishop's Glovemaker'is an early book in a long series by Michael Jecks,and is very different to those later in the series. Set in Exeter,in the reign of Edward II,the novel deals with Christmas festivities,when a Boy-Bishop is elected to preside over festivites for a day. As is to be expected in a Jecks novel,a series of murders takes place,and of course they are solved by sir Baldwin and Baliff Puttock.I feel the resolution of the crimes seems bizarre,and as in the other books of the series there is so much repetition you just want them to get on with it!
What do You think about The Boy-Bishop's Glovemaker (2001)?
I'd had a hankering for a long time to write about a medieval Christmas, and this was the result. My longest title!It was a period of madness and mayhem. Christmas heralded a topsy-turvey period during which the Lord of Misrule came to power. The youngest, least experienced choirboy became Bishop for the day, while the Bishop (very sensibly) tended to make sure he was away from the city. Which is why when a noted local philanthropist was murdered and a youth poisoned in the Cathedral Close, the Bishop was nowhere around to help investigate the culprit. Instead it is Baldwin and Simon Puttock who must delve into the mystery and search beneath the calm, Christmas atmosphere to expose a shocking secret.A glorious little tale.
—Michael Jecks
