The Joys of My Life
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- €5.99
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- €5.99
Publisher Description
"This is a skillfully plotted, delightfully written genre-bender with appealing characters, bold adventure, and dark intrigue. Top notch!" Booklist Starred Review
May 1199: a party of five from Hawkenlye Abbey is summoned to the Ile d'Oleron by Queen Eleanor and have journeyed hundreds of miles for more than three weeks to reach their destination. The queen has summoned Abbess Helewise and her party to discuss the building of a chapel at the abbey, dedicated to the well-being of the soul of her dear son King Richard.
Meanwhile Sir Josse d’Acquin receives secret orders of a very different kind that set him on the trail of a group of mysterious knights rumoured to be devil worshippers. As Helewise heads for home, Josse follows his quarry to Chartres, where at night in the shadows of the new cathedral he meets the last person he expects to find there: Joanna. And she has grave problems of her own . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1199, Clare's compelling 12th mystery to feature Sir Josse d'Acquin (after 2008's The Paths of the Air) takes the knight and his friend, Helewise, the abbess of Hawkenlye Abbey, to France, to confer with Eleanor of Aquitaine, mother of the recently deceased Richard the Lionhearted, about a memorial chapel to be built at the abbey. The queen draws Josse aside with an additional assignment to investigate rumors that her son participated in obscene satanic rituals in which young boys were savagely butchered. To the knight's chagrin, he soon uncovers credible evidence that Richard was involved and must keep his word to Eleanor to suppress it. Meanwhile, members of the shadowy organization behind the killings, the Knights of Arcturus, come to England in an effort to keep their secrets. Lean, evocative prose; characters readers can relate to; and a high-stakes puzzle make this a superior medieval historical.
