September 13, 2021
The tumultuous politics of Henry IV’s early reign propel Clark’s solid sequel to 2020’s The Hour of the Fox. In 1400, Sir Thomas Swynford, “stepbrother to the usurper king,” compels Brother Chandler, a perceptive and worldly London friar who serves as a reluctant spy for the House of Lancaster, to accompany him and his entourage on a mysterious journey north. Their destination turns out to be Pontefract Castle, where Richard II, the Plantagenet king deposed in 1399, is imprisoned. Chandler, whose job it is to care for the ailing Richard, is appalled by his treatment. When Richard dies, having “starved himself from melancholy,” Swynford and company head back to London with the king’s coffin. Along the way, a mysterious bowman picks off Swynford’s men one by one, and Chandler is ordered to find the killer. The search for the culprit, whose victims the reader knows little about, takes a back seat to factional plots in London, Chandler’s evolving sense of morality, and the mystery of forbidden books harbored by poet Geoffrey Chaucer, employer of Matilda, the friar’s love interest. Those who enjoy medieval stories of betrayal and ruthlessness will be rewarded.
September 15, 2021
Clark follows up The Hour of the Fox (2020), her last tale of treachery and deceit, with an even more harrowing installment. Given a choice of pretense or death, Brother Rodric Chandler is forced to work against everything he stands for. Since having been sold as an orphan into the House of Lancaster, his liege lord has been Thomas Swynford, stepbrother to Henry Bolingbroke, who's seized the throne from the popular King Richard II. Swynford insists Chandler travel to Pontefract Castle, where Richard is imprisoned, and Chandler, who secretly supports Richard, is forced to watch the former king's degradation and finally his slaughter, for which his followers' rebellion provides the excuse. On the trip back to London with Richard's coffin, he travels with a group of mercenary archers he befriended at Pontefract, and Swynford is furious as members of his troop are picked off by a talented bowman. Meanwhile, Chandler's lover, Mattie, who works for Geoffrey Chaucer, is deeply in love and pregnant but enraged by Chandler's professed loyalty to the usurper king. She's quietly delivering bits of The Canterbury Tales to someone who can eventually publish it. Chandler must walk a fine line if he's to survive and at least pretend to hunt for whomever's killing Swynford's men. Today's nasty politic climate is nothing compared to the horrific cruelty of 1400, as Henry's vicious followers seek absolute power, forcing Chandler to flee if he wants to fight another day. Not a lot of mystery but the local color and historical detail are outstanding.
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