I would have given this first novel in the Owen Archer 4 stars, but sadly the lack of a final edit meant there were some silly annoying mistakes which kept appearing... best example is the use of the phrase "burn in hell" to curse an adversary, which actually appears in the ebook version as "bum in hell"... oh dear...
Will buy the second novel in the series to see how the characters develop... not as gripping as the CJ Sansom "Shardlake" historical novels, but a good introduction to a potential new series to read through this year.