A Brotherly Devotion is going on tour with Rachel's Random Resources, if you wish to participate please contact me on rachel@rachelsrandomresources.com with your name, blog name, preferred post type and availability.
A Brotherly Devotion by Jill Bray
Genre: Historical Whodunit
Tour Dates: 10th - 16th January 2026
Publication Date: 12th July 2025
Estimated Page Count: 236
Standalone Novel
Formats available: Epub, PDF and very limited UK Paperbacks
Types of post available: Reviews, extracts and Q&As
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brotherly-Devotion-Murder-Most-Foul/dp/B0FHDJKFZC
YORK 1224: On a hot July night, Brother Clement is savagely murdered when returning from administering to Lady Maud de Mowbray.
Simon de Hale, Sheriff of Yorkshire, is in his office when Abbot Robert visits to inform him of the murder, and request that he take responsibility for investigating the killing.
Simon is unsure whether the murder is a crime against the Abbey, or if it is a more personal matter against the monk.
Commencing their investigation, Simon and his deputy, Adam, ride out to see Lady Maud de Mowbray at Overton - the last person to see Brother Clement alive. When they encounter her son, Roger de Mowbray, they both take an instant dislike to him.
Lady Mowbray reveals to Simon that she intends to leave her money to the Abbey, and Simon can see this being a motive for the monk’s murder, if her son was aware of this.
The investigation gathers pace and a murder weapon is found.
A banquet is held at the castle to honour the Royal Justice - during which, one of the guests is exposed as the murderer and apprehended. But that will not be the end of the story for Simon and his family.
About Jill Bray
Jill lives on the Island of Guernsey now, but is originally from Yorkshire. She has a love of early medieval history which led her to study the subject at Huddersfield College in the 1980's. Working in Leeds at the time, meant that she had access to the Yorkshire Archaeological Society on their late night opening and following research, she wondered what the lives of the people she read about were actually like. This started a love of writing historical fiction, but her initial stories were never sent to a publisher. Life and work then intervened and writing was put to one side. It was only following a workshop held by the Guernsey Literary Festival in 2024 on writing historical fiction, that her love of writing was reignited. Her first novel 'A Brotherly Devotion' was published in July 2025.
Follow Jill Bray
Facebook: Jill Bray – Author and Twitter/X @JillBray67
Blog Tour Schedule
Maximum 3 stops per day. Confirmed blogs will appear here.
10th January
b for bookreview
The Book Elf
11th January
A Knight’s Reads
Sarandipity's
12th January
Let us talk of many things...
The Book Magnet
13th January
Rachel Elwiss Joyce
Novel Kicks
14th January
Bookworm86
15th January
Splashes Into Books
16th January
malloch_books