The Dragons of Archenfield: Volume III of the Doomsday Books - Hardcover

Edward Marston

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031213472X ISBN 13: 9780312134723

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1995

Synopsis

The Dragons of Archenfield is set in England just after the Norman Conquest, during the reign of William the Conqueror.
The frontier zone of Archenfield in Herefordshire is a no-man's-land which acts as a bulwark between Norman-controlled English soil and the Welsh border. Soldier Ralph Delchard and lawyer Gervase Bret arrive in Hereford for what looks like one of their more straightforward assignments from the crown, to settle conflicting claims to land in Archenfield.
Ralph and Gervase are shocked to discover the murder of a principal witness, a wealthy landowner who was burned alive in his own home. No clues remain except an enigmatic red dragon, cut into the turf in front of the house. Documents essential to settling the land claim, including the landowner's will, are thought to have been destroyed in the blaze.
While attempting to settle the disputing land claims, Bret and Delchard are drawn into the hunt for a killer who has more than riches and wealth on his mind. Their mere presence in Archenfield stirs up murderous hatred and sets into motion a deadly feud between two lords who will settle for nothing less than the death of the other.

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Reviews

This third volume of the Domesday Books (after The Ravens of Blackwater) starts off, literally, like a house afire but peters out into standard costume drama, including the rescue from a castle of a kidnapped princess. The year is 1086, two decades after the Norman conquest, and the setting is the former Welsh stronghold of Archenfield on the quiescent English border. The house fire traps and burns alive Warnod, a Saxon thane scheduled to testify before commissioners of the Domesday Book, a general survey of the country's wealth. On the ground outside Warnod's house, a red dragon, symbol of Wales, is drawn. Which of two Marcher lords, bitter rivals, is bent on creating trouble and why? Soldier Ralph Delchard and lawyer Gervase Bret, Domesday commissioners, aided by the obstreperous, chauvinistic Welsh priest, Archdeacon Idwal, get to the bottom of the mystery but only after two bloody skirmishes. Although Marston clearly sketches his historical setting and the fights for the spoils of war and conquest, a slow pace and some flat prose bog this entry down.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This third entry in Marston's medieval series (The Ravens of Blackwater, LJ 9/1/94; The Mad Courtesan, LJ 11/1/92), set in the time of William the Conqueror, takes soldier Ralph Delchard and lawyer Gervase Bret to disputed territory to settle local claims. They discover, however, that someone?probably a dreaded local lord?has murdered their prime witness. More fine work, as expected.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

King's soldier Ralph Delchard and royal lawyer Gervase Bret settle another land dispute and solve another case of murder in the third installment of Marston's entertaining series, Domesday Books. Commissioned by William the Conqueror to conduct a comprehensive survey of his recently acquired kingdom, Ralph and Gervase travel to the Welsh border intending to investigate three different claims to the same piece of choice property. When one of the claimants is burned to death in his own home and an innocent young woman is kidnapped, tensions erupt between the Norman, Saxon, and Welsh populations of Archenfield. In order to avert a lengthy and costly bloodbath, Ralph and Gervase piece together the perplexing puzzle by uncovering a motive and exposing the identity of the true culprit. Another outstanding medieval mystery brimming with intrigue, suspense, and authentic historical detail. Margaret Flanagan

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 031213472X
• ISBN 13: 9780312134723
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 242