The Ruffler's Child (Thomas the Falconer Mystery Book 1)

Thomas the Falconer goes to London with the goal of buying a goshawk for his master, Sir Roger. Thomas learns that Lady Margaret has other reasons for visiting London. These reasons lead to several attempts to harm or even murder Thomas. Secrets upon secrets abound, each one is dangerous to someone that Thomas loves. How far is he willing to go to protect those cherished ones?

Perhaps, I shouldn't be, but I'm generally surprised when I really like a book offered through Kindle Unlimited, which is how I downloaded this pretty good Elizabethan mystery.Thomas works as the birdkeeper ("falconer") for a knight and his lady in rural England in 1587. Thomas is a widower w/ a pre-teen daughter, who finds his lady's brother dead, mauled by a large animal(s), and later determined to have been shot to death by a crossbow. The mauling was done by a bear freed from a London bear pit by its pitmaster, a shady man who judicially suffers even though Thomas testifies that the bear did not kill the gentleman, only mauled him after death. We'll see this man again.Thomas is assigned to travel w/ Lady Margaret to London to purchase a new gyrfalcon, as Lady Margaret dearly loves the sport of "hawking," or hunting with birds, a highly-popular leisure activity for the richer sorts. Lady Margaret plans on settling her brother's estate while she is in London as well. They stay at a friend's manor house in London and purchase four gyrfalcons. Before they can pick up the falcons, however, the birds are cruelly murdered. This looks like a sinister message to Lady Margaret, who obviously has a secret which could destroy her if discovered.This intro sets me up for a great whodunit. Thomas begins his twin investigation, into who would kill the expensive birds, and then into who could be threatening to expose Lady Margaret's secret. His investigations lead him to a "ruffler," a hoodlum who assumes a different identity to beg (or steal or commit other crimes). Thomas saw one of the ruffler's associates in the vicinity of Lady Margaret's brother's murder, and following the associate leads Thomas to John Lynch, the ruffler, and imperils Thomas' life, more than once. Apparently, no one is whom they seem to be. And who is the madam that seems to be wrapped up w/ Lynch and may be the key to the crime(s)?There are side stories, such as Thomas unrequited attraction to Lady Margaret, and lots of below-stairs flirting at the manor house, but these side stories actually further the plot(s), not detract from them. Thomas finds the killer of the falcons, and eventually the killer of Lady Margaret's brother. As for Lady Margaret herself, there's quite a bombshell for a conclusion.The reason I can't give this story a full five stars is b/c the author obviously has an INTIMATE knowledge of Elizabeth London and its lay-out. He gives great detail on the routes Thomas travels through London, to the point of tiresome repetition. The same treatment is given to which lord's house is outside/inside the city walls. This info does not further the plot for me, and thus began to feel like the author showing off instead of seamlessly blending the information into the story. I felt the same way about the introduction of the suppression of Catholicism during the era, although that was better-fitted into the plot. I'll give the book 4.4 stars rounded down to 4. I have already downloaded Book #2 in the series, b/c I really LIKE Thomas the Falconer as a character.

Good twisty plot and authentic (sometimes horrible) details of life in Elizabethan times for ordinary people. Looking forward to the next one.

Nice Elizabethan mystery, well not really a mystery but a study in non-state investigating,. The characters are interesting, although given the times I was surprised at how the women were willing to have sex outside of betrothal and marriage. Although in the 1940s, I spent Easter vacations in rural Pennsylvania where betrothal seemed to follow pregnancy without much comment. Anyway, I enjoyed the book.

Best novel was so good I read it in one sitting! Well researched... Language and plots were believable. I wish there were six more!

This was a pleasant change of pace for me. I love the story line about the falconer and Sir Robert Vicary and Lady Margaret and trying to discover who killed Lady Margaret's brother. He is a widowed father, a skilled ex-soldier and tenacious hunter. Thomas Finbow is devoted to his employer and his young daughter. The story moves at a steady pace and there is never a dull moment.Highly entertaining, well-written.

a well-written series & fun to read

I loved this book. When is the next one?

I have given this book a 1 star review not because of the quality of the writing which is perfectly ok, but rather the quality of the printing.The quality of this book is ABYSMAL! There are mis-spellings, the punctuation is at times missing, but worst of all and most commonly sentencesfinish in the middle of a line. Just as I have done now.This completely ruins the flow of the book and spoils any enjoyment.Get your act together Amazon, this is ATROCIOUS, especially for a company that made its name selling books. If you can't get it right then leave publishing to the professionals.

The story is 5 star. the printing and proof reading by AMAZON is awful.Notwithstanding spelling errors, sentences are broken by dropping onto theline below ieThe beggar approached thenobleman and asked for alms.These are not isolated cases but occurs numerous times spoiling the flow of the narrative.AMAZON please leave publishing to the professionals.I had intended to purchase the rest of the books in the series but doubt I couldstomach the disruption caused by the errors!

Great storytelling, although it was easy enough to guess Lady Margaret`s secret. I got to know the main characters early in the story and cared about their fate. Having said that this was not necessarily an Elizabethan story and did not have a feel of the era. I had to remind myself quite often that we were not in the 18th or 19th century. Several spelling errors went unnoticed by the whoever did the proofreading, which was irritating but did not detract from the story. Will be reading more in this series.

Let's start with the positive. John Pilkingon writes well. He draws the reader in and you want to know more. Settings and characters are well drawn and add to the story-telling.Now to the negatives.First and foremost is the formatting, which is so bad it constantly drew me out of the plot. Sentences are split abruptly over two lines. Sometimes paragraphs are correctly aligned, other times they start fully to the left. A competent formatter, even software, would have done a better job of whoever formatted this book.Finally, the underlying plot kind of petered out and the book just kind of tailed off with the mystery, such as it was, solved but not through any particular action on the part of the main character.

I don’t quite understand why other readers are not up in arms about the dreadful editing and printing in this book. It is decently written and a good enough yarn but the layout of the print is just so annoying. Sentences are cut in two with inexplicable long gaps which makes the reading so disjointed. I read on my kindle so perhaps the paperback was ok. Maybe this is why there aren’t a lot of other complaints.