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Jun 27, 2010
The setting for this novel is, once again France in the thirteenth or fourteenth century.And as far as I'm concerned, this is vintage Cornwell featuring my favourite Cornwell hero, Thomas of Hookton. Once again, Thomas, an archer, earns his keep pursuing the holy grail in France. There is a medium amount of fighting, swash-buckling, pillaging, plundering and raping. The scale of the conflict is not like that featured in the clashing of armies of hundreds of thousand of men --- Like Waterloo, for example --- the fighting is much more man to man than that. A is frequently the case in Cornwell's ovels, there are a lot of terms to boost your vocabulary (not to mention the Latin) : destrier, beghard, pavises, cibation not to mention Phlogiston. For the first time in my reading of Cornwell's novels, the love-interest lady of the tale is not killed off before he end of the novel. The ending comes as somewhat of a surprise --- Cornwell introduces a new protagonist to this novel. If you've read the other novels featuring Thomas of Hookton this one won't. disappoint --- it's a page turner.