A Famine of Horses: A Sir Robert Carey Mystery (Sir Robert Carey Mysteries, 1) - Softcover

Chisholm, P F

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1890208272 ISBN 13: 9781890208271

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2011

Synopsis

The author, who under her real name Patricia Finney has published two well received historicals, The Firedrake's Eye and The Unicorn's Blood, both set in the rein of Elizabeth I, parlays her mastery of the period with a robust sense of humor and vividly conceived characters to produce the American Western in Elizabethan Border Country. There is little difference between the Scottish reivers thieving horses and brawling with both each other and the hated English and the gunslingers who made Tombstone and Boot Hill notorious.
In the year 1592, Sir Robert Carey, a handsome courtier, comes north to Carlisle to take up his new post as Deputy Warden of the West March. He has wangled his appointment to be nearer his true love, a married woman, and farther from the still eye of his Queen and the disapproving eye of his father. And of course, there's the money....
Sir Robert is quick to realize he won't see a profit from the perks if he fails to keep the peace. Alas, he is quickly challenged by the murder of a local lad, the possible betrayal of a disappointed rival, the ire of the as-yet-unbetrayed husband, and the question of the horses--hundreds of horses being stolen from all over the lands lying between England and Scotland.
Rich in atmosphere and packed with real and fictional characters, few novels are as well imagined or as much fun as this romp through rustling, treason, and high ambition.
The other works in this series are A Plague of Angels (Introduction by Diana Gabaldon), A Season of Knives (Introduction by Dana Stabenow), and A Surfeit of Guns (Introduction by Barbara Peters). The author is at work on a fifth Sir Robert Carey.

About this title

About the Author

P.F. Chisholm is a pseudonym of a well-known writer of historical thrillers, children's books, and non-fiction blogs and ebooks. Previous titles in the Sir Robert Carey and Sergeant Dodd series are A Famine of Horses, A Season of Knives, A Surfeit of Guns, A Plague of Angels, A Murder of Crows, and An Air of Treason.

From Publishers Weekly

Chisholm steeps her story in so much 16th-century atmosphere and historical detail that much in this British debut is slow going. When Sir Robert Carey, courtier to Queen Elizabeth, is transferred to the Scottish border, he finds many problems. His brother-in-law has appointed him Deputy Warden over Richard Lowther, who assumed he would get the job. Carey has to contend with Lowther and the distrustful Sergeant Henry Dodd, who has just found the body of the son of a powerful feudal lord. Carey must convince Dodd that stemming the lord's vengeful tendency and bringing the murderer to trial is the civilized way of justice. While looking for the killer, they stumble on the makings of a border attack, which Carey suspects is being masterminded locally. Chisholm's short digressions on the new concept of due process are thoughtful but blunted by archaic terms. And Carey, an upright courtier with the gift of guile, remains too distant, never fully retaining the reader's sympathies.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1890208272
• ISBN 13: 9781890208271
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 268