The Falcons of Montabard

Readers will immediately be swept away by a masterful telling of a story spanning the borderlands of Scotland across the desert to the courts of twelfth-century Jerusalem. Sabin FitzSimon, an amorous knight in King Henry's court, loses his powerful position when discovered in a dalliance with the king's favorite mistress. Attached to Sir Edmund Strongfist, FitzSimon will accompany the aging knight and his convent-educated daughter, Annais, on a crusade to the Holy Land. In the glittering and intriguing courts of Jerusalem, they will meet the seductive predatoress,^B Mariamne, who will lust for Sabin and take Edmund for a husband; the courtly widower Gerbert, smitten with Annais; and the fearless King Baldwin and his courageous queen, Morphia.^B Soon all the characters find themselves caught up in border skirmishes leading to kidnappings, ransoms, and a daring rescue (based in fact) from a Saracen fortress. The author expertly twines factual details through the page-turning action. All characters, fictional and historical, are fully realized.