Ricardians may have been some of the first to know about Scott Mariani’s change of direction. After thirty highly successful thrillers about the contemporary ex-SAS hero Ben Hope, the author told the Ricardian Bulletin’s editor, Alec Marsh that “thanks to The Tudor Deception I decided I wanted to become a historical author. And so that’s going to happen next: there’s going to be a new series set entirely in medieval times – a crusading series.” He has chosen a period three hundred years before Richard III’s time, which has fascinated novelists from Sir Walter Scott (The Talisman), through Graham Shelby (The Crusader Knights Cycle Series) to Richard Warren Field (The Swords of Faith) and Stewart Binns (Lionheart).
Mariani bravely enters a crowded if uneven field, but quality will always succeed. Long ago, in 1845, G.H. Lewes, in an article for the Westminster Review, argued that ‘the conjunction of two such elements as history and fiction may be excellent, provided the history be good and the fiction be good’. Mariani has clearly researched the late 12th century in some detail – from the power politics of the Age to the weaponry available; from the carnage of siege warfare to the treachery of court politics. He has understood and explained the often unpalatable and myriad of reasons for embarking on the quasi-military expeditions to reclaim the Holy Land. He is equally adept at describing the soldier’s equipment of the day – whether the archer’s or the crossbowman’s; the carnage of siege warfare; and the terrifying experience of travelling in 12th century ships across the Bay of Biscay and through the often malign Mediterranean.
A skill finely honed with his Ben Hope books, enables Mariani to draw together believable and life-like characters, both good and ill, and envelope them in a variety of realistic landscapes. The hero, the young freeman Will Bowman, who pursues the killers of his young wife and unborn child from Oxfordshire to Southampton, to Sicily and Cyprus, is a born leader, adept at both archery and, increasingly, chess. Around him are gathered several other realistic fellow travellers – such as Gabriel O’Carolon and the huge bear-like Samson - whilst the villains of the tale range from the bulky, red-faced crossbowman Osric to Sir Ranulf of Gisland with his retinue of bloodthirsty knights, four of whom had been responsible for the death of Will’s wife and the destruction of his home and livelihood. There are also shrewd pen portraits of the irascible King Richard, his formidable mother Eleanor of Aquitaine and his young bride-to-be, the delicate but steely Berengaria. The untrustworthy Tancred, ‘Monkey King’ of Sicily, and vainglorious Isaac Comnenus of Cyprus, are both given short shrift by King Richard and the author - Mariani sticks closely to the chronicles of the time.
This is an excellent production by the esteemed publisher Hodder and Stoughton. The slightly larger- sized paperback, with decent margins and the striking Perpetua Std typeset, all make reading Mariani’s novel even more of the usual pleasure.
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