John Pilkington Books In Order

Publication Order of Betsy Brand Books

Publication Order of Elizabethan Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Justice Belstrang Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Martin Marbeck Books

Publication Order of Thomas the Falconer Mystery Books

Publication Order of Will Revill Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of JohnPilkington Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of The Bishopsgate Ward Mysteries Books

John Pilkington is a British author.

Born on January 1, 1948 in Preston, Lancashire in England, Pilkington is also recognized for writing radio plays in the eighties. He then wrote some television scripts for the BCC before going on to write mystery books for kids.

He has been a writer for over forty years. His family was one of the oldest in the Lancashire area. His father directed a family cotton mill that been built by their Victorian forebears in Leyland. John grew up there in the fifties, the oldest of four. He went to private schools until he was ten years old. His parents separated and he went to grammar school, coming out a teen who loved pop music and himself played drums and guitar. He played with different bands before realizing he wasn’t likely to be a rock star in the future. Luckily he was passionate about writing and became interested in it, writing poems and song lyrics scribbled out.

John has also held many different jobs besides just being a writer. He has been a lab assistant, a carpet factory weaver, a farm worker, shipping clerk, garage attendant, accounts clerk, cabaret musician and picture frame maker. Living in London, he wanted to try writing scripts, so he went to a writing group and had his first radio play broadcast through BBC Radio 4.

As a student, he earned his degree in drama and English, then went to the University of London to get his master’s degree. He founded a theatre-in-education company while also directing Twelfth Night in the eighties for a school tour, before becoming an author. Radio plays led to stage plays and then writing television scripts for a soap on the BBC.

His novel The Ruffler’s Child came out in 2002 and then was released again in 2019. He also went into audiobook and translation, focusing on historical fiction. He was a regional chair of the Writers Guild of Great Britain, and was a Writing Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund at the University of Bristol for 2012 to 2014.

John lives in a village in Devon on a tidal estuary. He shares his life with his partner, and they have a son together who is a musician and psychologist. When not busy writing, he likes to go on walks, take swims, listen to music, tinker with his D.I.Y. project, and relax knowing that authors do not have a retirement age.

Legacy is the first book in the Justice Belstrang Mystery series by John Pilkington. If you love a good creative mystery that is set back in history, be sure to give this story a try.

The place is England, and the year is 1616. Main character Robert Belstrang is a former magistrate who has grown tired of country life. He has come to London so that he can look into the disappearance of Thomas Jessop, the son of a poor Catholic neighbor.

He finds the young man in Bedlam asylum. The kid has gone silent and is also starving himself. He attempts to free Jessop but when he does, a political lawyer Anstis warns him off the case. Not long after, he finds that his situation has gotten worse. He gets drugged, he is robbed, and he is locked up under false pretenses.

Belstrang is released and he keeps up with his investigation. But at every turn that he takes, he finds difficulty. There are forces out there who wants Thomas Jessop to die. He decides that it’s high time to confront Anstis, but then he turns up dead.

The trail gets murkier at each hour and pulls Belstrang into the Catholic underworld. Then he finds out about a plan that has roots in the decade-and-more-old Gunpowder Plot. Thomas was being used in a scheme to mark the Plot’s anniversary. The plan failed, and now those who planned it seem to want to cover it all up and move on.

They didn’t count on Belstrang, however, a stubborn man who tends to see things through. He gets some help from Daniel Oldrigg, a former soldier, and sticks to his plan. Along the way, he finds out the real reason why the Anniversary Plot happened, and its ties to the center of a corrupt government. He’s going to have to figure out the truth, and he’s willing to risk his life in the process. Will he get what he wants, or die on the way there? Read this debut in the series from John Pilkington and find out!

The Witching Pool is the second book in the Justice Belstrang Mystery series by John Pilkington. If you thought that the first book in the series was good, be sure to check out the sequel and see what you think!

The place is England and the year is 1617. Susanna Cobbett is the teen daughter of a landowner in Worcester with a considerable amount of power. That didn’t stop her from getting murdered, however. Susanna’s dead body is discovered in a woodland pond, one that is rumored to have a bad reputation and is called ‘the Witching Pool’.

They say that the girl drowned herself. She was driven to madness by Agnes Mason, a local widow who gets arrested for charges of witchcraft. The stakes are high because if they find her guilty the widow will be hanged.

Justice Belstrang is a former magistrate and is also a great skeptic. He doesn’t believe in any of it. Then Agnes’s family asks him to help and all of a sudden he is involved in a mystery that is getting more complicated all the time.

But the deaths don’t stop there. It isn’t too much time before another death arises. The body belongs to Susanna’s lover. The young shepherd is reported to have thrown himself into the Witching Pool to drown, motivated by the prospect of living life without the one he loved so.

But when Belstrang talks to a local woodsman, he finds out that there’s more to this case than at first meets the eye. The woodsman is found dead after, and Belstrang vows that he’s going to solve this case no matter what. The mystery gets even more complicated when he finds that he is going up against Justice Standish, his former rival.

It doesn’t matter, though, because Belstrang is driven by his need for justice and his stubborn refusal to quit. He also gets help from his friend Doctor Boyd. Can they solve a great crime and catch a killer? Read this mystery to find out!