The Broken Ship: The Hanse Reckoning (The Parliament of Rookes)

The Parliament of Rookes
Book One

England, 1368.

Thomas Rooke is dead.

Set against the richly realised life of a fourteenth-century English town, The Parliament of Rookes is an immersive historical novel of family, commerce, faith and justice. It is a story not of kings and battles, but of the quieter powers that shape history: reputation, duty, memory, and the institutions that endure when the lives of individuals have passed into memory.

As his son Matthew struggles to inherit responsibilities for which no man can truly prepare, his daughter Alice finds herself drawn into an accusation that quietly gathers a life of its own. Rumour hardens into certainty. Old loyalties are tested. Ancient institutions begin to move, not with violence, but with patience and authority.

Around them stand those whose choices will shape the future: the faithful servant Mark, whose lifetime of loyalty is about to be tested; Ursula, a merchant whose judgement reaches far beyond commerce; and Cecilia, the formidable Prioress whose pursuit of truth is inseparable from her pursuit of power.

Set against the busy commercial life of a fourteenth-century English town, The Parliament of Rookes is a novel of family, commerce, faith and justice. Rather than kings and battles, it explores the quieter forces that determine the fate of communities: reputation, duty, memory and the institutions that endure long after individuals have passed away.