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John Dee, astrologer and scholar, suspected by some of dabbling in the darker side of the magical practices of his day, is asked by Sir William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth's chief advisor, to travel to Glastonbury in search of the bones of the legendary King Arthur, a figure of some importance to the Tudor monarchs. He's accompanied by his friend and former student, Robert Dudley, believed by many to be the Queen's lover. Almost immediately on their arrival in a small town already well-stocked with fakes, charlatans and rogues, Dudley's servant is murdered in a manner clearly intended to be seen as a ritual killing. Rickman writes fluently in this first person narrative, and Tudor England, seen through the eyes of John Dee, is grimy enough to satisfy those who like realism in their books. Rickman doesn't go overboard in his use of language designed to ground the book in his chosen period, but the narration does have some odd quirks, lapsing repeatedly into the present tense for a few sentences at a time, which managed to throw me out of the story while I tried to decide if it was a literary device designed to add greater immediacy, coupled with a period 'feel', to Dee's observations, or simply the product of lazy editing, but either way, I found the habit increasingly irritating. The plot itself was complex, possibly overly so and, in common with many of Rickman's works, would almost certainly have benefited from a heavier editorial hand to improve narrative flow and speed up progress generally. But, for fans of Rickman's other books and particularly those who like their detective stories to have a historical setting, the book will no doubt provide a satisfying read. Dee himself is an interesting and unusual narrator and the character of Dudley in particular is well drawn, as are the host of minor characters who heavily populate the book. As a bonus, much of historical Glastonbury will be amusingly familiar to anyone who knows the town today. Overall, the historical setting is competently handled and the plot is serviceable, playing to Rickman's usual themes of supposedly supernatural happenings ending up being firmly grounded in an altogether more prosaic reality, but I wouldn't describe this as one of his most gripping books. §Linda Wilson is a writer, and retired solicitor, with an interest in archaeology and cave art, who now divides her time between England and France.
Reviewed by Linda Wilson, June 2010
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