The Bradecote and Catchpoll series, by Sarah Hawkswood, is published by Allison & Busby. They have a chronological order but also work as stand alone stories. There are currently seven in print and as ebooks, and the eighth, Blood Runs Thicker, will be published in March 2021. The ninth in the series will be published later in 2021.

Read the synopses and titles of future investigations in the Novels section. You can read an extract from Servant of Death here, and the first chapter of Ordeal by Fire here. An extract from the audiobook of Servant of Death can be heard here and one for Ordeal by Fire is here. The third and fourth books in the series, Marked to Die and Hostage to Fortune are now also available as audiobooks, and the fifth, Vale of Tears, came out in August 2020.

The Bradecote and Catchpoll series are set in Worcestershire during the Anarchy of King Stephen’s reign, and commence in June 1143. They follow the investigations of Hugh Bradecote, a vassal lord of the Sheriff, William de Beauchamp, and the Sheriff’s Serjeant, the wily Catchpoll. Catchpoll is ‘the professional’, having been ‘serjeanting’ for twenty years. He knows nearly all the low life of Worcester, and works on the principle that outside of thefts for survival and crimes of passion, criminals are mean bastards, and the way to keep crime under control is to prove you are a meaner bastard than they are. He is observant, can think clearly, and is, above all, pragmatic. From the second book they are joined by Walkelin, whom Catchpoll has selected as his 'serjeanting apprentice'.