Jacey Bedford's Journal

Audiobook, read by Matt Addis. A medieval murder mystery. Though this is Book 6 it stands alone and there's no sense of missing information from previous books. Set in the early 1100s, Sir Geoffrey's unpopular brother, Henry, is murdered and Geoffrey inherits Goodrich Castle in the Welsh Marches. His sister, the castle's ruler in all but name, immediately pushes him to find a bride and produce an heir, but all the available ladies of suitable rank are problematical in one way or another. Geoffrey is lately come from the Crusades and even his own people assume him to be violent and bloodthirsty, like (or even worse than) his dead brother. In trying to work out who killed Henry, Geoffrey steps into a veritable hornet's nest of more murders, revenge, arson and (Welsh) uprisings, with one woman seeking to destroy every Mappestone in revenge for Henry killing her husband. There were quite a few plotholes and things that happened for the sake of the convoluted plot. For an experienced investigator (presumably in the previous five books) Geoffrey accepts some explanations that are truly flawed, but he sorts it all out in the end, though a couple of the culprits (literally) get away with murder, even though we do learn the truth. This is very ably read by Matt Addis and I enjoyed listening to it, though on reflection the plotholes were a little unbelievable.