I have a series of books featuring Master Mercurius, a lecturer in moral philosophy at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

Mercurius was born in 1638, so he is 33 at the time of the first story, Death in Delft. We know very little about him except that his mother and grandmother are still alive when the series starts, but that his older brother, Laurentius, was killed at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665.

Mercurius has a secret – you’ll have to read the books to find out what it is!

Readers of Death in Delft may find this map helpful.

And here is a map of Utrecht that may help with parts of Untrue till Death.

Mercurius begins to dictate his stories when he is around eighty years old and therefore finds reading and writing a little difficult, requiring him to employ a clerk, Van der Meer. Despite Mercurius’ disparaging comments Van der Meer is actually a diligent and hard-working scribe who tolerates Mercurius nodding off halfway through a paragraph and occasionally interjects to ask Mercurius to explain something better. Mercurius values Van der Meer’s assistance, without which his stories could not be told, but he isn’t going to let Van der Meer know that.

Mercurius takes some time to complete his doctorate, without which he spends most of his time teaching undergraduates, for whom he has, in general, complete contempt. It baffles him that some of them have been able to gain admittance to what he believes is the world’s leading university of his day.

When he is in need of comfort he may go and sit in the kitchen with Mechtild, whose husband, Albrecht, is the master cook at the University. Mechtild is something of a surrogate mother or the big sister he never had and has a soft spot for Mercurius, who is unfailingly polite to the University staff, unlike some. She is prepared to tackle anyone on Mercurius’ behalf and can raise his spirits with one of her fig tarts or an egg custard.