2.5 stars ( )

After a night of partying at the castle, a young page is found dead in the moat the next morning. The same young page that Owen’s friend Ned was seen having ‘words’ with. Since Ned is known to have a temper and the young man seemed to be friends with Ned’s woman, Ned is suspected of doing away with the lad. Lucky for Ned he was vouched for by the King’s mistress as to his whereabouts.

Shortly after that Ned was sent as an escort to a party on the king's business. When they got to York, Owen was put in charge of the mission and he made Ned 2nd in command and split the parties. Owen was missing some key information and things didn’t turn out well. Enroute, one of the party attacked Ned, and then fled into the night. Ned was blamed, and after he learned his love had drowned, he also ran off. This turned out to be bad in more ways than one. And Ned seemed to keep making the worst decisions he possibly could, should he want to prove his innocence.

Owen is put to the test trying to find out what is going on, who did what to who and who is guilty of what. The Archbishop, who set him on this task is also trying his hand at sleuthing, and is finding he has some knack for it, though, what he learns might not be to his liking. Several innocents were murdered and the blame seemed to sit on Ned, though there wasn’t any strong reason for him to have done such a thing.

This was both reasonably tense and frustrating book. I was pretty sure before half way through the book who was responsible, but why took a little longer. However, as confident as I was it wasn’t Ned, he seemed hell bent on getting his neck stretched in a noose, and I understood Owen’s frustration with his friend, who kept his own council and continued to do rash things, despite Owen’s attempts at helping him. Still a well written book and a good story. Great series, I still recommend them! ( )

Rather pedestrian—the prose never rises above workmanlike, and while Robb resists the temptation to tie up all the loose ends at the novel's conclusion, there's no real tension to the plot. The info dumps about medieval history weren't the worst I've ever seen, but atmosphere and context could have been more elegantly provided. ( )

Corre el año 1367 y Eduardo III de Inglaterra tiene, a pesar de las objeciones papales, la firme determinación de nombrar obispo de Winchester a su consejero privado. Así pues, con el fin de conseguir el apoyo de los influyentes monjes cistercienses de las abadías de Fountains y Rievaulx, el rey escoge a Owen Archer para esta delicada misión. Mientras tanto, el paje de sir William Wyndesore aparece ahogado después de sostener una fuerte discusión con Ned Townley, amigo y ayudante de Archer. La causa es Mary, camarera de la intrigante Alice Perrers, a su vez amante del rey.Poco después, cuando Mary muere también ahogada, Ned es acusado de asesinato y se ve obligado a huir. Ante esta complicada situación, sólo Archer es capaz de salvar a su amigo, aunque antes deberá desvelar un oscuro secreto relacionado con las más altas esferas del poder.

I found all of the Owen Archer books just superb. I'm not a huge fan of the mystery genre, but the way Robb writes these characters, the depth of historical knowledge she can fit into a story -- but never bogs down the story! -- makes these books great. I heartily recommend.