We are in England and it's Roundheads versus Cavaliers, but the politics take a backseat to the private vengeance of Sir Crispin Galliard. It is short at 263 pages, but action-packed, as Sabatini doesn't waste pages on such mundane activities as washing, shaving or eating. There's lots of drinking, of course, since Crispin is notorious for his debauchement. We have only a small cast of characters, so the plot is very predictable, but Sabatini's redeeming feature is that he knows his stuff, doesn't use anachronistic language and even has a heroine who does not ride, she needs a groom to control the horse while she rides pillion.

ETC ( )

After enjoying Sabatini's Scaramouche, I had hopes for his other works and bought this one without knowing a thing about it other than the author. What a disappointment! The story is set during the English civil war. It's such a painfully obvious plot... debauchee knight is a dispossessed nobleman who is mysteriously drawn to a youth who is JUST the age his son would have been if his son had not been killed (off-scene, of course) by his mortal enemies... imagine that... and the son is engaged to the daughter of the enemies who defrauded the knight of his estates, so the knight is playing a double game by using the young man to get close to the family. I can predict this plot a mile off, and there's nothing special about the writing to keep me reading. Sabatini uses the same device (the father and son not knowing each other til the end) in Scaramouche in a scene that Star Wars must have ripped off. Scaramouche was much better than this story though.

I won't be finishing this book. It's a pity; I was hoping to enjoy more of Sabatini's work. But the clunky, predictable plot and run-of-the-mill characters effectively killed any interest the historical period would have had for me. ( )