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Don't Murder The Ferryman
The world-wide, best-selling, medieval investigations of Brother Hermitage take the ferry.
(No ferrymen were murdered in the writing of this book.)
When Mistress Cwen makes the simple decision to visit her cousin, who only lives twenty-five miles away, Brother Hermitage has to consider whether the murder will happen here, or on the way.
After all, as King William’s own investigator, he seems to attract dead bodies like the bottom of a grave.
But there are many rivers to cross, and Wat the Weaver is not all happy about the modern business of crossing water, which has become more business than crossing.
And when they get to the lonely outpost of Ermendone and find that the ferryman has gone missing, the chaos begins.
A new ferryman is required, and readers of the previous thirty-five volumes will know who that means. As if things weren’t confused enough already.
The Sheriff of Ermendone seems clueless about everything, and the people of the village are obviously up to something, but the suggestion that the ferrymen of England are being murdered is surely ridiculous.
With Brother Hermitage in the vicinity, it’s not as ridiculous as all that.
And when they finally get on the trail of the truth, they find it harder to believe than all the nightmares Hermitage created in his head.
A quarter of a millions sales, thousands of reviews and two dozen No. 1 best-sellers. 960 years is not too late to jump on the bandwagon.
5* Hilarious, brilliant, fabulous, medieval mystery mayhem
5* As ever, a great story and very funny.
5* Howard of Warwick never fails to entertain. His latest offering is as witty as usual, with plenty of mystery and superstition to keep Hermitage puzzling to the last page.
Compared - by others - to Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Tom Holt and Winnie the Pooh!
(No ferrymen were murdered in the writing of this book.)
When Mistress Cwen makes the simple decision to visit her cousin, who only lives twenty-five miles away, Brother Hermitage has to consider whether the murder will happen here, or on the way.
After all, as King William’s own investigator, he seems to attract dead bodies like the bottom of a grave.
But there are many rivers to cross, and Wat the Weaver is not all happy about the modern business of crossing water, which has become more business than crossing.
And when they get to the lonely outpost of Ermendone and find that the ferryman has gone missing, the chaos begins.
A new ferryman is required, and readers of the previous thirty-five volumes will know who that means. As if things weren’t confused enough already.
The Sheriff of Ermendone seems clueless about everything, and the people of the village are obviously up to something, but the suggestion that the ferrymen of England are being murdered is surely ridiculous.
With Brother Hermitage in the vicinity, it’s not as ridiculous as all that.
And when they finally get on the trail of the truth, they find it harder to believe than all the nightmares Hermitage created in his head.
A quarter of a millions sales, thousands of reviews and two dozen No. 1 best-sellers. 960 years is not too late to jump on the bandwagon.
5* Hilarious, brilliant, fabulous, medieval mystery mayhem
5* As ever, a great story and very funny.
5* Howard of Warwick never fails to entertain. His latest offering is as witty as usual, with plenty of mystery and superstition to keep Hermitage puzzling to the last page.
Compared - by others - to Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Tom Holt and Winnie the Pooh!
307 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 28, 2025
27 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Howard of Warwick
53 books89 followersHoward of Warwick is but a humble chronicler with the blind luck to stumble upon manuscripts which describe the goings-on of Brother Hermitage and his companion Wat the weaver.
His work has been heard, seen and read, most of it accompanied by laughter and some of it by money. His peers have even seen fit to recognize his unworthy efforts with a prize for making up stories.
There are now eighteen - make that twenty - novels of Brother Hermitage, the most medieval of detectives, loose on the world and they have found considerable success with the buying public.
The most recent outpouring from the scriptorium is The King's Investigator Part II.
Tales of Hermitage continue to flow forth with few checks for accuracy. There are even short stories available for free.
There is a dedicated web page, HowardofWarwick.com.
Messages can be left care of Howard@howardofwarwick.com and Howardofwarwick can be followed on Twitter
There is even tweeting @HowardofWarwick
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 16, 2026
SPOILERS
Have you ever stuck with a series that started out brilliant, then slowly declined, but you kept reading anyway because you’d already invested so much time that quitting would feel like admitting defeat?
If you did, then you understand my relationship with "The Chronicles of Brother Hermitage."
I love this series. I really do. It’s original, funny, and impressively historically accurate. I’ve recommended it to people. I used to evangelise it.
I started reading it when there were about 15 books in the series. Now (counting short stories and spin-offs,) we’re at 40, and there’s no end in sight. That wouldn’t be a problem if the series weren’t increasingly feeding on its own tail.
Exhibit A: More the ferryman.
If you saw the word "Ferryman" in the title, congratulations: you already knew More was coming. And if you know More, you know the drill. He says “Yis” instead of “yes,” has one tooth, a beard that bobs when he nods, understands so little it feels like a superpower, loves money, and is functionally immortal.
That’s the joke. That’s all of it.
In a comedy series, this kind of character works very well. But once. Maybe twice. They pop up, get some laughs, and then exit stage left forever. They're simply too flat to carry on without getting old very quickly. Instead, More keeps coming back like a medieval jump scare.
I’ve lost count of how many books he’s in. We’ve met his entire family. Same joke.
We jump ahead a couple of centuries (Magna Carta,) and you think you’re safe. You are not. His descendants are there. Still saying “Yis.” Still bobbing their beards.
So when I saw this book’s title, I knew exactly what awaited me: long stretches of the protagonists trying to reason with More while he remains blissfully oblivious. Which is, unsurprisingly, exactly what happens. At this point, I briefly considered abandoning the series and starting a new life.
To be clear: my problem isn’t More himself. He’s just the most obvious symptom of a bigger issue. The series refuses to end.
When Cwen’s pregnancy was introduced, I thought "Ah, here we go. The beginning of the end." Maybe Hermitage would move on to let Cwen and Wat to raise a family. Maybe we’d get a flash-forward where Hermitage passes on his investigative skills to their child. Maybe someone, somewhere, would write "Finis" once and for all.
Instead, Cwen has now been pregnant for about six books, I think? And she's not even that far off into the pregnancy yet, considering how she’s still extremely mobile, still needs to remind everyone she’s with child, and apparently progressing at the pace of continental drift. Are we getting one book per each pregnancy month? Per week? Per contraction? Place your bets.
We also meet Otto, whom I actually liked, mostly because he’s new . But his ominous “I won’t forget this, Brother Hermitage” filled me with dread. Because I know he won’t forget it, and based on precedent, neither will the author. I fully expect Otto to resurface in another dozen books, probably sharing page space with More saying “Yis!” while Cwen remains eternally pregnant.
I know this review sounds harsh. But it comes from love, even if tough. I normally give Hermitage's books five stars. Even when More shows up, beard bobbing and all. But me loving the series is precisely why I wish Howard of Warwick would end it before it collapses under its own weight and move on to writing new adventures in a new universe where we won't be able to guess what is going to happen from the very title. I'd be the first in line to read them. Oh yis.
Have you ever stuck with a series that started out brilliant, then slowly declined, but you kept reading anyway because you’d already invested so much time that quitting would feel like admitting defeat?
If you did, then you understand my relationship with "The Chronicles of Brother Hermitage."
I love this series. I really do. It’s original, funny, and impressively historically accurate. I’ve recommended it to people. I used to evangelise it.
I started reading it when there were about 15 books in the series. Now (counting short stories and spin-offs,) we’re at 40, and there’s no end in sight. That wouldn’t be a problem if the series weren’t increasingly feeding on its own tail.
Exhibit A: More the ferryman.
If you saw the word "Ferryman" in the title, congratulations: you already knew More was coming. And if you know More, you know the drill. He says “Yis” instead of “yes,” has one tooth, a beard that bobs when he nods, understands so little it feels like a superpower, loves money, and is functionally immortal.
That’s the joke. That’s all of it.
In a comedy series, this kind of character works very well. But once. Maybe twice. They pop up, get some laughs, and then exit stage left forever. They're simply too flat to carry on without getting old very quickly. Instead, More keeps coming back like a medieval jump scare.
I’ve lost count of how many books he’s in. We’ve met his entire family. Same joke.
We jump ahead a couple of centuries (Magna Carta,) and you think you’re safe. You are not. His descendants are there. Still saying “Yis.” Still bobbing their beards.
So when I saw this book’s title, I knew exactly what awaited me: long stretches of the protagonists trying to reason with More while he remains blissfully oblivious. Which is, unsurprisingly, exactly what happens. At this point, I briefly considered abandoning the series and starting a new life.
To be clear: my problem isn’t More himself. He’s just the most obvious symptom of a bigger issue. The series refuses to end.
When Cwen’s pregnancy was introduced, I thought "Ah, here we go. The beginning of the end." Maybe Hermitage would move on to let Cwen and Wat to raise a family. Maybe we’d get a flash-forward where Hermitage passes on his investigative skills to their child. Maybe someone, somewhere, would write "Finis" once and for all.
Instead, Cwen has now been pregnant for about six books, I think? And she's not even that far off into the pregnancy yet, considering how she’s still extremely mobile, still needs to remind everyone she’s with child, and apparently progressing at the pace of continental drift. Are we getting one book per each pregnancy month? Per week? Per contraction? Place your bets.
We also meet Otto, whom I actually liked, mostly because he’s new . But his ominous “I won’t forget this, Brother Hermitage” filled me with dread. Because I know he won’t forget it, and based on precedent, neither will the author. I fully expect Otto to resurface in another dozen books, probably sharing page space with More saying “Yis!” while Cwen remains eternally pregnant.
I know this review sounds harsh. But it comes from love, even if tough. I normally give Hermitage's books five stars. Even when More shows up, beard bobbing and all. But me loving the series is precisely why I wish Howard of Warwick would end it before it collapses under its own weight and move on to writing new adventures in a new universe where we won't be able to guess what is going to happen from the very title. I'd be the first in line to read them. Oh yis.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 15, 2025
RyanAir as a Plot???
Howard had me going along in this entry into the history of Hermitage wondering how the disappearance of a ferryman would translate into a murder mystery (had to be murder ergo Hermitage). But (spoiler here), it became a tale of a typical airline business model that Howard must have thought up while waiting at the gate at Stansted or London City airport. I guess you need to pass the time doing something when your football team isn’t on the telly and SkyNet is only showing reruns of Trump nonsense. The only thing I couldn’t get past was Cwen. Pregnant Cwen. Cwen of the short, not to be trifled with temperament carrying child. How is it she was not hounding Wat for hauling her all over the Norman-Saxon countryside chasing down ferryman? Especially with More in tow? Is pregnancy softening her? Doubt it! Nonetheless, a good tale which has me eagerly waiting for what’s next.
Howard had me going along in this entry into the history of Hermitage wondering how the disappearance of a ferryman would translate into a murder mystery (had to be murder ergo Hermitage). But (spoiler here), it became a tale of a typical airline business model that Howard must have thought up while waiting at the gate at Stansted or London City airport. I guess you need to pass the time doing something when your football team isn’t on the telly and SkyNet is only showing reruns of Trump nonsense. The only thing I couldn’t get past was Cwen. Pregnant Cwen. Cwen of the short, not to be trifled with temperament carrying child. How is it she was not hounding Wat for hauling her all over the Norman-Saxon countryside chasing down ferryman? Especially with More in tow? Is pregnancy softening her? Doubt it! Nonetheless, a good tale which has me eagerly waiting for what’s next.
November 24, 2025
Not the best in the series, though I have to admire the author for taking a few risks. It just needed a bit more attention from an editor.
Cwen decides to visit one of her cousins, so Wat and Hermitage go along with her and end up in the village of Ermendone.
And don't move for 307 pages.
Wat bargsins, Cwen yells and Hermitage reasons out some of the plot but ultimately it waits on a reveal by the villain of the piece, who is name by the narrator before being introduced to the characters (p. 235). The author attempts to get away from the necessity of having facts in the plot revealed from a character's POV by including four 'interludes' which add some clues to the mystery but could really be dispensed with. Still, you have to admire the effort.
As much of a fan of these stories as I am, this one is strictly for the Brother Hermitage completists.
Cwen decides to visit one of her cousins, so Wat and Hermitage go along with her and end up in the village of Ermendone.
And don't move for 307 pages.
Wat bargsins, Cwen yells and Hermitage reasons out some of the plot but ultimately it waits on a reveal by the villain of the piece, who is name by the narrator before being introduced to the characters (p. 235). The author attempts to get away from the necessity of having facts in the plot revealed from a character's POV by including four 'interludes' which add some clues to the mystery but could really be dispensed with. Still, you have to admire the effort.
As much of a fan of these stories as I am, this one is strictly for the Brother Hermitage completists.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews