From Publishers Weekly:
Sir Roger Shallot's "fourth journal" (the third was The Grail Murders) reveals a veritable Titus Andronicus of savagery: duels; beatings; suicide; plots within plots; and murders?lots of them. But it's hardly tragedy, as Shallot, Knight of the Garter, four-time widower, cheater at dice and earthy-tongued libertine (who claims to have sired a son by the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I), tells it all with garrulous, sometimes scatological, gusto. He recalls the spring of 1523, when he, then a mere servant, traveled with his beloved master, Benjamin Daunbey (nephew of Cardinal Wolsey and agent of Henry VIII), to Italy to investigate the London murder of a Florentine envoy. Staying at the villa of the powerful Abrizzi family, they see plenty of action while drinking in the lively but treacherous Florentine milieu of Machiavelli and the Medicis. The mystery, which has to do with the scheming that led to Henry's break from Rome, is merely workmanlike. It doesn't really matter a bit. The pleasures of this series are not to be found in plotting but in Shallot's Falstaffian narrative flair.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal:
YA?The reign of Henry VIII bristles with adventure and intrigue in this fourth journal of Sir Roger Shallot. The narrator, servant to Cardinal Wolsey's nephew, travels with his master first to London and then to Florence on their quest to solve the mystery of the murder of Francesco Abrizzi, Florentine envoy to the king. This is but one of the many mysteries Roger and his master encounter and solve while obeying Wolsey's summons. The appeal of this story to YAs is manifold: it is a fast-paced, somewhat bawdily told tale set in a time of great political upheaval and peopled with characters (real and fictional) whose scheming and plotting bring color and life to an era far removed from our own. A list of the historical personae mentioned in the text is included.?Pamela B. Rearden, Centreville Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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