Serpent in the Thorns, by Jeri Westerson - A Crispin Guest Medieval Noir

Serpent in the Thorns

Jeri Westerson

A Crispin Guest Medieval Noir

Good ol' down on his luck Crispin Guest, the Tracker, is embroiled in another murder mystery involving a sacred relic, this time the Crown of Thorns.  This time around he gets to work out some of his bitterness over the disgrace of being branded a traitor but spared his co-conspirators' death.  Thsi doesn't come easy, as the serpents, as is their wont,  is concealed and more of a threat to himself than he realizes.

A young woman has come to him to report a murder.  Her developmental disability makes her plea confused and the details few, but there is a dead man in her and her scullion sister's room.  Crispin, knowing he is unlikely to be paid, nevertheless goes with her to investigate, and not only finds the body of a French courier with an arrow protruding from it, but also a sack containing  the fabled Crown of Thorns.  He knows the King of France planned to loan the relic to King Richard II of England, so now he has to decide how to find the killer and also a way to use his possession to regain the favor of the king whom he conspired to dethrone seven years prior.

Who should turn up at a mandatory archery practice but Miles Alleyn, the very man who roped Crispin and his comrades into the conspiracy to put John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster on the throne.  He immediately suspects Miles of being involved in the murder but knows the man must have had help.    When someone starts shooting at him, the older scullion sister, and the king, he knows his time to solve this mystery is short.  Revelations about that vexing old plot throw Crispin into a maelstrom of revelation.

The novel contains the same wonderful noir conventions as Westerson's other Crispin Guest novels, down to a Ratso Rizzo character called Lenny.  He is distracted by the dames, threatened by the corrupt cop, finds suspect among the rich and famous, and takes lots of hard knocks for himself.    His friends, in particular his servant Jack, support him, but they also come into the line of fire.  All in all this mixing of genres works and works exquisitely.

As in the other books, part of the story is Crispin's skepticism about the relics, their authenticity, their reputed powers, and when for fun Crispin puts the crown on his head, he experiences the elation and confidence that is this particular relic's gift.  I should have liked more done with that, since it seems one king lending such a powerful item to another must have background or consequences, but Westerson explains this away as the effect only working for the pure of heart.  Crispin aned Jack, pure of heart?  I would say well-meaning and idealistic at most.

There were a couple other points, particularly with Crispin's invasion of the royal feast, when I felt that the author lost her way, resulting in some confusion and logical improbabilities, but one thing with Westerson, you know she will keep you guessing and rooted to the page. She tells a helluva ripping yarn, and, what's more, offers some masterful sequences, most notably in this novel Crispin's final encounter with the king.


A "medieval noir" is a clever idea, and Westerson was just the person to do it.  You will enjoy everything about it.

I bought the Kindle version of this novel and read it gleefully with my Kindle 3.

Varanger, by Cecelia Holland - A Corban Loosestrife Novel

Varanger

Cecelia Holland

A Corban Loosestrife Novel

The National Library Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped has an odd habit of making the novels in a series available out of order.  So though I received the first book in the Corban Loosestrife series when I requested it, the next one available for the new digital talking book machine is Volume 4, Varanger.  This novel isn't even about Corban Loosestrife but rather his son and nephew.  So I guess I will learn what happened in between when the earlier sequels arrive.  (One spoon the poorer.*)

Corban Loosestrife's son, Conn, and his sister's son, Raef, have left Scandinavia after a desperate and destructive sea battle and are now in what will become known as Russia.   They are given the chance to join in an expedition to Kiev where they are promised lots of booty if they help the ruler there with a raid.  Conn, the fighter, is anxious to put some distance between himself and his patron's slave and bed mate whom he desires, and Raef, who has inherited some his mother's and uncle's paranormal skills, just wants to keep moving, so they go.  What follows is a fascinating account of river navigation with Raef's eerie ability to choose the best course.   In between landings to camp for the night Conn and Raef puzzle over the odd politics of the heirs of Rurik the Dane, the forebear of the rulers of the otherwise Slavic peoples and come up against various friends and foes.

They are skeptical but game when in Kiev they are asked to help it's ruler, Volodymyr,  wants them to lead an attack with some old dragon ships on a stronghold in the Black Sea.  Raef has bad feelings about this, but he presses on, collecting a Hun bedmate along the way who treats him better than women have tended to in his life.  The remaining story is about the attack and its consequences, the two Varanger's exposure to Byzantine culture and life, and Raef's and Conn's solid comradeship.

I kept thinking as i was listening to this novel that there really wasn't much of a point to it.  It is about a journey though, and stories about geographical journeys tend to be about personal ones as well.  I suppose in this novel the inner journey is Raef's.  He deals with his psychic trepidations, explores his mutual devotion with Conn, and with his memories of his mother, a woman of immense magic., and his feelings about his being the fruit of her rape.  He seems reluctant to let his own psychic inheritance to come forth, and this will no doubt be the theme of sequels to Varanger.

Having had an introduction to early Russian history in Edward Rutherfurd's Russka I had extra reason to enjoy the travelogue and the characterization of the different peoples.  Though the plot seemed aimless at times, it's an enjoyable tale  with characters you will like getting to know.  I don't know if having read the two intervening novels might have enlightened the journey for Conn and Raef, but I expect to read them and find out.

I read this novel via a cartridge sent to me at my  request by my local NLS branch.

* See The Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino.

Iron Men,by M. Kei

Iron Men

M. Kei

Pirates of the Narrow Seas, Book 3

Iron Men is the continuing story of Peter Thorton, Royal Navy officer, by tanka poet M. Kei.  In the first two books, The Sallee Rovers and
Men of Honor,  we meet socially awkward Peter and applaud him for his compassion for galley slaves doomed to drown on a sinking ship, only to find himself very much in love with the notorious Capt. Tangle, a Sallee Rover chained on that galley.  We see him reject Tangle because Thorton, a one-man man, or so he believes, yearns for a more stable love.  We see Peter prove his mettle as a captain of a ship, captured again by the British Navy, court-martialed for desertion, becoming a Muslim and having sex with men, all the while provwing his mettle in the Royal Navy as well..

Now he is on his way to England to testify about the loss of the British fleet in the Mediterranean.  Also testifying are Capt. Ebeneezer  Horner, a dour, lonely but decent man stuck in his career thanks to his more modest origins.  Horner likes Peter, knows how worthy an officer he is, and, well, turns out to fancy a Platonic relationship with him -- Platonic the way Plato meant it.  Officers we already know are there as well, Forsythe, the capable administrator and lousy leader, as well as Peter's desired flame, Perry, who has done him dirt but has a surprise in store for him.  Finally we have blind Alan Abby, the bastard son of an earl and enthusiastically gay, in love with Peter, and quite prepared to don women's garb for an evening at the theater.

In the earlier volumes we see Thorton come into his own, accepting his basic nature and reaching for what he wants in the world.  His genius as a battle leader comes out in the second.  Now we see Peter as he tries hard to stay true to himself, fighting against the requirement that he learn to play the games, and finally after nearly losing it all, getting off his own case and letting his hair down a bit.

Like the first two novels, number three is full of exciting sea battles, with nautical detail that provides a backdrop without leaving you feeling like you missed something, cleverly imagined and written.  Thorton is an unusual protagonist in that he is not the usual preternaturally gorgeous and heroic seafaring man, but instead a refreshingly human, flawed but earnest character.  In this book, you get to see him with more and quite various people, and witness just how hard he is trying to be both himself and acceptible to those around him.  He seems prone to self-destructive actions out of which that only his immense capacity for being the sacior of the day can pull him.

I hope a Book 4 is in the works, because I have not yet seen all I want of Peter Thorton.

The publisher and author provided me with an electronic copy of the book so I might write this review.  I listened to it on my Kindle 3.

Transgression, by Erastes

Transgressions:

An M/M Romance by Erastes

David and Jonathan come together at a time in history when Englishmen struggled for the very rulership of the country. The land of the Wars of the Roses and earlier contention was not unfamiliar with rival claimants to the throne, but this time it was an entire overturn of tradition. The followers of Oliver Cromwell’s Puritans and the cavaliers under King Charles I duked it out over the “divine right of kings” and a new severe religious dominance. On opposite sides of this conflict our young lovers play their personal drama as they struggle simply to survive.

David is the angel-faced son of a blacksmith who prefers to while his way walking through the meadows or resting by the river. Jonathan is apprenticed to David’s father and exemplifies every virtue David lacks. David starts to refer to Jonathan, as “my Puritan” in reference to the latter’s family’s beliefs. Puritan or not, Jonathan takes very little convincing when the gorgeous David, introduced to “the love that dare not speak its name” by a dashing royalist soldier, Tobias, turns his newfound sexuality on him. David, an inveterate liar, has no leg to stand on when he is falsely accused of getting a girl pregnant. Jonathan does not believe his denials, and David angrily leaves to join the King’s army.

The stories of the two boys’ lives diverge. David runs across Tobias’s sometime lover and finds out what it is like to be on the wrong end of a faithless relationship. When the royalist forces take a terrible defeat, Tobias, who has appeared seemingly out of nowhere, helps David escape to London where they can live incognito. Their sexual attachment blossoms into more as they fight to avoid detection by the new government. In the meantime Jonathan has been pressed into service with Cromwell’s forces. He and David have a fateful encounter after which Jonathan is convinced his former lover tried to kill him. Bitter, he hits the road and gets mixed up with a sadistic religious fanatic who tries to make him see David as a tool of the devil while brutally using Jonathan sexually himself. Will these two, David and Jonathan, find each other again someday and understand the reality of their lives?

The history in this M/M romance is fascinating. Unlike too many sweeping historical dramas that try to encompass every aspect of the events of the day, Transgressions focuses on the immediate for two compelling but not exalted characters. We watch the two boys grow into men during a period where they cannot avoid taking sides more profound than Englishmen have had to in their history. One king or another may have had little impact on most people’s daily lives, but the new government under Cromwell restricts personal freedom with an iron hand. At the heart of the relationship, David and Jonathan must try to live their lives in a climate of severe and fanatical sexual repression. How they manage or don’t manage is a theme of this compelling novel.

The characters in general are neither complex nor subtle. They have their strengths and weaknesses, but it is hard to identify the nature of their struggles to come to balance. Perhaps the major deficit in Transgressions is that the resolution comes along abruptly without much development. After reading of intense and often brutal struggles for each of the young men, in only a few pages everything comes to an end, though arguably not a completely satisfying end. I wanted to see more of how Jonathan in particular resolved his conflicts and how David played a part in that. Instead a poem had to suffice.

Erastes is a skilled novelist, telling a story quite enjoyably. It was nice, this being the third of her books I have read, to see a relationship not of men separated by class, age and wealth. Her sexually explicit scenes are both hot and appropriate in revealing aspects of individual characters. The history alone makes this novel great to read, but the personal love story will keep a reader glued to the pages as well.

I purchased this novel and read it on my Kindle 3.

This is, by the way, the two hundredth post on this blog.

Men of Honor, by M. Kei

Men of Honor

M. Kei

Pirates of the Narrow Seas, Book 2

Men of Honor (Pirates of the Narrow Seas, Book 2) continues the story of Royal Navy Lieutenant Peter Thorton from The Sallee Rovers (Pirates of the Narrow Seas), reviewed here. In the earlier novel, Thornton is carried away when his captain abandons the slave ship he and fellow officers have boarded to free the chained slaves who would have drowned when the ship sank. As the story progresses, Thorton becomes involved with the famous corsair, Captain Tangle, resigns his commission in the Royal Navy and is made captain of his own ship in the Sallee navy.

Men of Honor is fast paced, action packed and exciting. It begins with Thorton being taken into custody by a British ship just after he has performed the astonishing feat of defeating two Spanish ships single-handedly. He is wanted for numerous violations of the articles of the Royal Navy, including conversion to Islam, “buggery and sodomy”, and desertion. Giving his parole, his word, to the acting captain of his old ship, he is permitted to serve on it instead of being imprisoned. He is such a capable officer that he is in a position therefore to perform some heroic service between this time and his court martial. Underlying the action are the many conflicts Thorton struggles to resolve, including his relationships with three men he is attracted to and the often arbitrary or preferential application of rules and punishment. His new love, Shakil, a gentle man, the glorious Captain Tangle, and Thorton’s first love, his conflicted friend Roger, play vital roles in the explication of Thorton’s story.

There is no question this is an exciting adventure. If a Spanish galleon is not firing on them, runaway carts are about to crush them, or someone has called someone else out for a duel. The Spanish send flaming ships to destroy a harbor, and Captain Tangle must follow another into a grotto and wage a gun battle within it. If there wasn’t so much of interest going on with this complicated protagonist, a reader could find her/himself exhausted by all the peril and its clever solutions.

Peter Thorton is something of an enigma. He has a remarkably simple and single-minded way of relating to the world. He is so direct that he cannot understand the convoluted reasoning or opportunistic manipulation of others. While this is deficit for him in his career as an officer in a highly political organization, the navy, it makes him a consistent and valuable guy to have around in a crisis. Unlike the usual hero, he is full of self-questioning in social situations, is uncomfortable with heroism, and pretty much at the mercy of the manipulations of others. Nevertheless he is admirable, intelligent, and decisive in a pinch.

Kei’s knowledge of 18th century ships is expert, and he easily navigates through the terminology and technology of tall ships. What is refreshing here is that the reader does not feel tangled in either the action or the description of the action. I, utterly ignorant of nautical expressions, never once felt talked down to or lectured. Instead it all felt like atmosphere, background, and was quite comfortable.

There were a few times where I might have made other choices in how the story was told, but these instances had more to do with my expectations than any lack of skill on Kei’s part. For example, I kept expecting Thorton at some moment of peril or victory to look about for his lover, Shakil, but he did not always do so. I needed to remind myself that this was all part of his ambivalence about relationships and though this might have been made even clearer, it was by no means inconsistent.

There are lots of vividly drawn characters in this novel, just as there were in The Sallee Rovers. Tangle, Shakil, and Perry are here, and Captain Horner, the ailing Captain Bishop's replacement, is a welcome addition. Towards the end a new character, a recently blinded Lieutenant Abbey, promises to be a refreshingly resourceful disabled character in a genre prone to stereotypes.

The author and ebook publisher Bristlecone Pine Press provided me with the novel in exchange for this review. I was able to listen to it on my brand new Kindle 3. I already have started reading the third book in this series, Iron Men.  These books are available in both paperback and ebook.