Sleuth of Sherwood

Robin Hood-leader of an outlaw band of Sherwood Forest-befriends an impoverished knight who is about to lose his ancestral lands after his son, Peter, accidentally kills a rival knight, Sir Walter, in a tournament. The Abbot of St. Mary’s, who served as judge in Peter’s trial, imposed a huge fine on the knight, who then had to put up his lands as surety for the fine. Robin and Little John suspect that the abbot is only after the estate, and find that the abbot has also conspired to control the lands of the new Countess of Chesterfield by kidnapping her and trying to force her to marry his kinsman, Sir Walter-who, it turns out, is not dead after all, but in hiding with the kidnapped countess. Robin must trick Walter’s mother into revealing his whereabouts, rescue the countess from her prison, and ultimately confront the abbot in his den. It’s a tall order, but along the way, Robin will have to rescue Little John’s partner, Will Stutely, from hanging, and seduce the Sheriff of Nottingham’s wife, as well. Well, he doesn’t have to do the latter, but some things just happen…

Author Biography

Jay Ruud is a retired professor of English at the University of Central Arkansas, now devoting much of his time to fiction writing. He has retold the traditional legend of King Arthur for modern readers as a series of Merlin Mysteries, the final volume of which, To the Great Deep, was published in the fall of 2020. He’s also written scholarly books, including an Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature (2006), A Critical Companion to Dante (2008), and A Critical Companion to Tolkien (2011), as well as the first full-length study of Chaucer’s short poems, “Many a Song and Many a Leccherous Lay” Tradition and Individuality in Chaucer Lyric Poetry (1992), a book that was reissued by Routledge in October 2019 after 27 years. He taught at UCA and chaired the English department for 13 years, prior to which he was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He has a Ph.D. in Medieval Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and is married to the thoroughly awesome poet and novelist Stacey Margaret Jones. He has two more or less adult children, and as many spectacular dogs as grandchildren (four). He has been to all seven continents, is a lifetime Chicago Cubs fan, and dabbles in community theater, where he once played his own daughter’s mother.