Hawks of Delamere - Softcover

Edward Marston

Softcover

ISBN 10: 190628847X ISBN 13: 9781906288471

Publisher: Ostara, 2010

Synopsis

Volume seven of Marston's acclaimed Domesday series, a solid historical mystery, provides plenty of conflict--between church and state, earl and king, Norman and Saxon, English and Welsh--as well as a lesson in medieval feminism. Loutish Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester, is hunting in the forest when his prize hawk drops from the sky, pierced by an arrow. Enraged, Hugh sees to it that a pair of hapless poachers, father and son, hang on the spot for the crime. The next day one of Hugh's hunting companions, Raoul Lambert, also falls victim to a murderous archer, and this time there are no handy scapegoats. Meanwhile, a party of royal commissioners arrives in Chester to rule on some legal disputes, but first they find themselves helping Saxon beauty Gytha and her brother Beollan, whose father and elder brother have perished at Hugh's whim. Beollan has a vital clue to the actual killer's identity, though in a clever shift it develops that who shot Hugh's hawk and Raoul Lambert is less important than why. When Welsh warriors begin to march near the border, a scheming archdeacon thinks the key to averting bloodshed lies with Gruffydd ap Cynan, prince of Gwynedd, held hostage in the Chester castle dungeon.Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information,Inc

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Review

Edward Marston is perhaps best known for his Edgar-nominated series of theatrical whodunits set in Elizabethan England ( The Roaring Boy and The Mad Courtesan). In his Domesday Books series, of which The Hawks of Delamere is the seventh, Marston has turned his attention to an earlier era: the 11th century, when England was still cautiously--and bloodily--attempting to negotiate the legacy of the Norman invasion.

Ralph Delchard, a Norman aristocrat, and Gervase Bret, a quiet Saxon clerk, are in dangerous territory: they have arrived at the Welsh border to settle territorial and taxation disputes on behalf of King William. The Welsh appetite for rebellion festers uneasily beneath the placid countryside, and Hugh d'Avranches, the royal delegation's host, seems destined to be the main course at that bloody feast. A man of imposing girth and even more imposing temper, he has been the target of a Welsh assassin's arrow. Only Ralph and Gervase suspect that the arrow might have been of Norman origin, and their investigation leads them to the heart of Hugh's court.

Marston has a tedious tendency to pontificate his characters' emotions to the reader rather than allowing dialogue or action to convey them more subtly: "Gervase's blood coursed, and he was momentarily confused, not sure whether he was doting on his betrothed or showing an improper interest in a vulnerable young woman. Gytha's embarrassment suggested that she, too, was grappling with warm feelings which caused her some concern." The author's slips into the jargon of 20th-century pop psychology are equally jarring: "She looked up with a pathetic need for approval. 'Did I do right?'" Even Marston's efforts to capture the physical essence of an 11th-century Norman fortress has the air of an imperfectly recalled perusal of a rather dull sightseeing guide.

Readers seeking a deftly handled combination of mystery and the Middle Ages would do better to consult Ellis Peters, whose Brother Cadfael series takes pride of place in the genre. One hopes that Marston will soon return to the more forgiving glow of the Elizabethan stage, where he and his characters seem much more comfortable. --Kelly Flynn

About this edition

• Publisher: Ostara
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 190628847X
• ISBN 13: 9781906288471
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 196