Customer Reviews

Dragons of Archenfield

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Best of the series so far. Ralph and Gervase are two of the most full bodied dectives since Leaphorn and Chee. Red Herrings abound as they try to find out who killed a Saxon with claims to contested land. Golde adds a much needed twist to the foursome trying to settle land claims for King William.

Two civil servants ride into 11th-century Wales on routine business and find themselves confronted with a diabolical murder. In a country chafing under Norman domination, murder turns out to be the least of their worries.

This skillful blend of mystery and action (and romance) held my attention so thoroughly that I finished it in one sitting. Fans of Peters' Brother Cadfael should find themselves at home with Marston's Delchard and Gervase

Edward Marston pens enthralling mysteries during an exciting and intersting time of history, the Norman Conquest of England and the ensuing "Domesday Book" I am only sorry to discover him when all his books are not readily available.

He provides incites regarding the relationships of Normans, Saxsons and Welsh for the history buff. For those who love mysteries he provides an interesting group of detectives a knight - Ralph, a lawyer Gervase, Canon Hubert and Brother Simon. Marston deftly combines mystery, action and romance in a historical setting.

First Sentence: He was coming down the hill when they struck.

Norman soldier Ralph Delchard and Breton lawyer Gervase Bret travel around Britain to resolve disputes to ensure the information in King Henry's Domesday Book is correct. Archenfield in Herefordshire is situated in the English/Welsh border. There is a conflict as to who owns the land. When the men arrive, a wealthy landowner, and principal witness to the conflict, has just been burned alive in his home, a Welch lion f...more First Sentence: He was coming down the hill when they struck.

Norman soldier Ralph Delchard and Breton lawyer Gervase Bret travel around Britain to resolve disputes to ensure the information in King Henry's Domesday Book is correct. Archenfield in Herefordshire is situated in the English/Welsh border. There is a conflict as to who owns the land. When the men arrive, a wealthy landowner, and principal witness to the conflict, has just been burned alive in his home, a Welch lion filled with blood curved into the soil in front of his house.

Marston's writing has a wonderful voice. His characters come to life for me. The two men, Ralph and Gervase, are companions and friends but opposite in temperament.

They travel with the often annoying Canon Hubert and Brother Simon who is terrified of women. We learn a bit more about Ralph as he talks about his late wife. In this book, we have Idwal the Welch Archdeacon about whom even Brother Simon comments "Blessed are the deaf...for they cannot hear him."

It is that humor that offsets the occasionally gruesome action. Marston's books make me think of Shakespeare; exciting, suspenseful, battle scenes and sword fights, duplicity, betrayal, humor and a touch of romance. There is a wonderful discussion between Richard Orbec, an English landowner, and Ralph about war being murder.

Marston's sense of time, place and historical detail is wonderful. There was one portent, which I shall forgive, a surprising twist and an ending I loved.

I highly recommend this book, and series, to anyone who loves historical mysteries.

THE DRAGONS OF ARCHENFIELD (Hist Mys-Ralph Delchard/Gervase Brest-England- VG+
Marston, Edward - 3rd in Domesday series
St. Martin's Press, 1995, US Hardcover - ISBN: 031213472X

The link between all books in this series is imaginary episodes of gathering the information actually contained in the Domesday Book, the great medieval census of Norman the Conqueror's new English (Saxon) realm. A set of King's Commissioners and prelates visits a different locale in each book, the place signaled by the title, in this case the Welsh dragon-flag flying beyond the western border lands. Marston imagines little of how the census might actually have been taken, but we see much of local fighting, in court and field, by ambitious local claimants to one property or another. The focus is upon murder, manipulation, and matrimony, also knights in armor and skullduggery. Marston has very little feel for the period, presenting a generic medieval territory. The story focuses on the competition of three castellans over property. Each seems to be a one-dimensional baddie ("mine, mine, mine"), so why should I care which knight killed the nice old man at the beginning of it all?

This book is mis-categorized as a mystery. I found it a novel of adventuring, chivalry, politics, and mild mayhem. Each woman is fairer and more beautiful than the previously introduced damsel in distress. Marston's writing is flat, pedestrian, and simplistic. It exhibits a persistent problem with its pronouns. Marston is never atmospheric, nuanced, clever, insightful, suspenseful, exciting, or soaring. I give this 1 star for adults, but it might be a 3 for young readers who need to write a quickie school book review.

I am upset with myself that it has taken me so long to discover Edward Marston. The Domesday series is a winner! This is the third in the series, and it is totally wonderful! The Domesday Book has taken Ralph and Gervaise to the Welsh/English border, and they encounter a real hornet's nest there. They are dealing with two very dangerous March lords who are trying to establish their hold on the lands that they feel they are entitled to. The problem is that the Welsh also feel that they have a claim, and before the book is done a squaring off is done that has the potential to take a lot of lives. These books are totally wonderful! They are rich with period detail and best of all they are set in a little known period of England's history ( During the time of William the Conqueror). The characters are strong, the story is strong, and the mystery is tight. Altogether a real treat!

While looking into land fraud for the Domesday Book, our heroes, A Norman Knight and a Saxon Clerk, find murder and kidnapping with a Range War in the 12th century. And a murder to solve. The plot twists and turns carrying you along through a complex landscape of deceit, treachery, love and hate. But it is fascinating and Marstons' writing is marvelous. His historical research shows.

#3 Domesday medieval mystery series set across England in the 1080's. Ralph Delchard, a knight, and Gervase Bret, a lawyer, travel across England with their retinue resolving land disputes and investigating claims and set tax rates for the Conqueror. In this instance they are going to Archenfield, near the Welsh border, where resentments among the Welsh still run high against the Norman conquerors as well as the Saxons.

A disputed portion of land is sought by two sworn enemies, but the third man who has claim to it is suddenly burned to death, trapped in his own home with a red dragon carved in the earth and colored with cow's blood from the man's own cow. The red dragon is the symbol of Wales, so nearly everyone thinks the murder was done by Welsh insurrectionists, but the man got along peaceably with his neighbors and had no personal squabble with the Welsh, and Ralph and his team feel that the killing had a very personal element to it.

Did one of the two men coveting his land kill him so brutally or was it another, more personal, matter? Ralph and Gervase are determined to find out, and during their investigation are threatened by both of the powerful landowners and Gervase is captured and tossed in a dungeon--by whom, he doesn't know. I figured out one of the plot twists ahead of time but the main mystery remained a mystery til near the end.

I quite enjoy this series, set in one of my favorite historical time periods. I like both Ralph and Gervase, although they are quite different men--and their secondary characters are also now quite familiar. Wonderful period detail, interesting weaving of real historical events with fictionalized details. Excellent as always, looking forward to the next, although they are getting harder to track down--I think the library will need to cough up the next one.

First Sentence: He was coming down the hill when they struck.

Norman soldier Ralph Delchard and Breton lawyer Gervase Bret travel around Britain to resolve disputes to ensure the information in King Henry's Domesday Book is correct. Archenfield in Herefordshire is situated in the English/Welsh border. There is a conflict as to who owns the land. When the men arrive, a wealthy landowner, and principal witness to the conflict, has just been burned alive in his home, a Welch lion filled with blood curved into the soil in front of his house.

Marston's writing has a wonderful voice. His characters come to life for me. The two men, Ralph and Gervase, are companions and friends but opposite in temperament.

They travel with the often annoying Canon Hubert and Brother Simon who is terrified of women. We learn a bit more about Ralph as he talks about his late wife. In this book, we have Idwal the Welch Archdeacon about whom even Brother Simon comments "Blessed are the deaf...for they cannot hear him."

It is that humor that offsets the occasionally gruesome action. Marston's books make me think of Shakespeare; exciting, suspenseful, battle scenes and sword fights, duplicity, betrayal, humor and a touch of romance. There is a wonderful discussion between Richard Orbec, an English landowner, and Ralph about war being murder.

Marston's sense of time, place and historical detail is wonderful. There was one portent, which I shall forgive, a surprising twist and an ending I loved.

I highly recommend this book, and series, to anyone who loves historical mysteries.

THE DRAGONS OF ARCHENFIELD (Hist Mys-Ralph Delchard/Gervase Brest-England- VG+
Marston, Edward - 3rd in Domesday series
St. Martin's Press, 1995, US Hardcover - ISBN: 031213472X

Edward Marston is the pseudonym of Keith Miles, a fairly prolific and extremely good writer of mainly Elizabethan and medieval mysteries. He has also written mysteries under his own name with both sporting and golf backgrounds. However it is primarily the books that take place earlier in history that I am interested in. He read modern history at Oxford and has had many jobs, including university lecturer, but fortunately for all his readers, he turned to the writing profession.

After reading the first book in the series, I avidly sought out all the other books by Edward Marston and not a single one has ever disappointed me. They are about a period of history that I love. His Elizabethan theatre series of books were wonderful and he has continued them through from 1988 to 2006. The Domesday series is also a great series and this is the second book in the series.

The Domesday series is about a period in England's history shortly after the Norman conquest , during the reign of William the Conqueror. It was King William himself who called for an `inventory' to assess taxes and survey landholdings. This inventory was called the Domesday book and was a tremendous undertaking, but one that brought stability to England. Edward Marston's Domesday novels are based upon actual entries in the Domesday Book.

Archenfield in Herefordshire is to all intents and purposes a no-man's-land that acts as a buffer between Norman controlled England and the Welsh border. Ralph Delchard and his lawyer associate and friend Gervase Bret arrive for what should be one of their more straightforward assignments for the crown. To settle conflicting claims for ownership of land, but they are shocked to discover the murder of a principal witness, burned alive in his own home. Documents that are essential to the land claim are thought to have been lost in the fire. While trying to sort out the land dispute the pair are drawn into a search for a killer . . .