Daniel Zeigler. Daybreak. Pyrotechnic Books, 2024.

Daybreak is one of a few books in a very small and distinctive genre: medieval murder mysteries. Indeed, the author seems very conscious of this because his main character is Nigel Baskervell. The most famous (and one of the very few) books in this genre is Eco’s The Name of the Rose whose main character is William of Baskerville—itself an allusion to Sherlock Holmes, literature’s most famous detective.

However, unlike either Holmes or Brother William, the protagonist of Daybreak is no lofty intellectual. That is not a putdown; after all, he is the son of a nobleman and has served as a knight in what would be known as the Hundred Years’ War. Nigel is the Sheriff of Northamptonshire in England in the spring of 1382. Without going into spoiler territory, Nigel is one of many who witness the very public and spectacular murder of the shire’s leading aristocrat, Sir Hugh Fitz Warren, during the wedding of the lord’s son.

The murderer is disguised and quickly escapes, but as Sir Hugh is dying, he names the man whom he says has attacked him. That man is an Oxford Student and Lollard by the name of Alan Duval. Sir Hugh does not like the Lollards or their leader John Wycliffe, and Duval and Sir Hugh were witnessed arguing the day before.

The plot is immediately complicated. Nigel has met Duval, and Duval prayed for Nigel’s son Robert who was wounded in an archery accident. Nigel can barely read Latin, so the theological controversies are beyond him, but Duval seems to be honest and sincere. He also seemed to have left the county after his meeting with Sir Hugh.

But the Fitz Warren family and other local nobles who attended the wedding reception where the murder took place expect Nigel to arrest Duval or otherwise quickly find a guilty party and put the matter to rest. Among those nobles are Nigel’s own older brother Guy and Nigel’s in-laws, Sir Thomas and Lady Sybill Grene.

There are any number of potential suspects. Sir Hugh was not terribly popular. The other lords considered him an unscrupulous rival. The landowners in the region all raised sheep, so in addition to other noblemen, any number of wool merchants and sheep shearers had grudges against Sir Hugh. Even Sir Hugh’s own son, who stood to inherit a nice estate, is not above suspicion.

The Fitz Warrens and the Grenes have petitioned the king to have Duval arrested and tried. Nigel, then, realizes that, be it Duval or someone else, an innocent man may likely lose his life if he does not solve the crime before the king acts—if he does act.

A typical sheriff of a relatively small county like Nigel’s has about a hundred cases a year, but most of these are fulfilling orders coming from above, settling small disputes, and making a few arrests, usually related to some kind of brawl. The murder of a prominent nobleman is something new for him, and for those in the county.

There are two other things going on that make Daybreak realistic and engaging to read. First, Nigel has his own personal problems. He lost his best friend in battle in France, Robert Grene, Sir Thomas’s son. Today we would say he struggles with PTSD. Robert’s sister would become his wife, and she, in turn, died in childbirth. His son, named Robert after his father’s friend, may not survive the arrow wound. And, naturally, as he investigates the crime, he encounters conflict from various sources including his own family.

The second item worth mentioning is the history going on in the background. Daybreak is the first of a series called the Morningstar Chronicles. Today John Wycliffe is known as the Morningstar of the Reformation. While he never appears in the story, he is very much in the minds of some of the people. When Duval quotes the Bible, for example, he quotes from Wycliffe’s translation (well, slightly modernized for today’s readers). Also in the background is John of Gaunt, the powerful Duke of Lancaster, patron of Wycliffe and uncle of the king.

We do briefly meet young King Richard II in the prologue as he deals with Wat Tyler’s Peasant Rebellion, which has also been going on at this time and adds to the sense of social unrest. Twenty years later, Richard, like Tyler, would end up being a tragic figure. And we are also reminded that in Nigel’s lifetime England along with the rest of Europe was forever altered by the Black Plague.

Ziegler gives readers a great sense of the history of the time. We also get a sense of justice and integrity as Nigel attempts to solve a garish murder while trying to overcome his own personal struggles and political pressures.