HISTORICAL
WARS OF THE ROSES: BLOODLINE
by Conn Iggulden
(Michael Joseph £20)
In THE winter of 1461, england is riven by a seemingly endless civil war. The Lancastrian King, the unstable and unworldly Henry VI, is a prisoner.
His wife, the vengeful Margaret of Anjou, is riding south with an army of scots and northerners to reinstate him, having first ensured that the head of the duke of york is impaled on york’s battlements.
outraged, the duke’s eldest son, edward of york, now proclaims himself King, thus escalating the conflict.
Complicated, violent, treacherous — the so-called Wars of the roses are strong meat and never more so than in this sure-footed, pacy recreation of a bleak world where the will to grab power from the competing tribe supersedes the lure of peace. The yorkists and Lancastrians who stalk this third volume in the series are strangers to conciliation and what we would call civilisation.
Conn Iggulden’s harsh envisioning of this gore-splattered epoch rings absolutely true.
ASCENSION
by Gregory Dowling
(Polygon £8.99)
By 1749 Venice is past her imperial heyday, but still ruled by a meticulous and far-reaching state apparatus, and her pleasures, illicit or otherwise, are a magnet for all europe.
The Venetian-born, London-raised, sharpwitted and resourceful Alvise Marangon offers his services as a tour guide of the Grand Canal to a youthful englishman bent on vice.
He soon finds himself entangled with a series of murders of male prostitutes, not to mention running up against the Venetian secret service, who are determined to uncover a conspiracy.
The book is steeped in Venetian history and occasionally the author’s desire to impart it holds up the pace.
But don’t be put off: Alvise is a terrific character, the murder mystery is absorbingly ingenious and, if you are a sucker for Venice, the sights, sounds and smells of its streets and canals ooze up from the page.
MASTER OF SHADOWS
by Neil Oliver
(Orion £14.99)
PRESENTER of the BBC’s A History of scotland And Coast, neil oliver unleashes a rip-roaring story in his debut novel, set in 15th- century scotland, Galicia and Constantinople.
The plot hinges on three characters in the years leading up to the siege of the city by the ottomans in 1453: the crippled Prince Constantine; the shadowy scottish mercenary John Grant, who serves him (based on a real character), and whose supernatural abilities here do not preclude him from being a ruthless killer; and Lena, a mysterious, charismatic young woman trained in martial arts.
There is a strong sense that, released from the straitjacket of conventional history, the author has enormously enjoyed concocting a full-blown, swaggering epic with a hint of magical realism and a plot with plenty of twists and intrigue.
Purists might not take to it, but many will be persuaded by the dash and brio with which it is written.