The Prince of Darkness

Rating:
Summary: Murder in the Middle Ages
Review: Fans who have exhausted the chronicles of Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael but but are hungry for more medieval murder, mystery and mahem should do themselves a favor and pick up a copy P.C. Dogherty's The Prince of Darkness.

Based on the legendary conflict between England's King Edward and his profligate son Philip, The Prince of Darkness sweeps you back to the 1300's where royal mistresses languish imprisoned in convents; royal clerks are royal spies, benign substances turn deadly, and political, sexual and religious intrigue lurks around every treacherous, torch-lit corner.

When The Prince of Wales' rejected, convent-bound mistress is found dead at the bottom of the priory stairs, Lady Amelia is ready to write it off as an accident. King Edward, however, has other ideas; and when dark rumors start to spread, hinting that either the Prince of Wales' new, male lover, the Warlock Gaveston-or even the Prince himself, may have murdered Lady Eleanor, he despatches his most trusted clerk, Hugh Courbett to uncover the truth.

What transpires is a wild ride through an age of poisoners, hell-hounds, sinister assassins and dissolute nobility. As the body count mounts, Courbett discovers that there is far more than an Anglo/French alliance resting on the outcome of his increasingly hazardous investigation.

P.C. Douherty has a clear, expedient style that manages to convey the day to day realities of medieval life without dawdling on unnecessary detail. Dougherty sets the pace, and then accelerates, interweaving believable characters and an intriguing, historically accurate plot in this entertaining, engaging and exciting thriller.