Showing results by publisher "--Tyson Hanks" in Medieval

For Hasting the Avenger, fame and glory were supposed to last forever. Two years after the legendary sack of Paris, Hasting remains haunted—not by his triumph but by the bitter twist of fate that Ragnar’s name made it into the songs of the Skalds and not his. Drowning in resentment and drink, he has become a shadow of the Viking warrior he once was. When his wife divorces him, strips him of his wealth, and takes his son, Hasting’s world collapses around him.

Sir John Hawkwood may be getting old but he is still as wily as a fox. Feared and revered in equal measure, one of the greatest military leaders the world has ever known is drawn once again into a territorial dispute, beginning at the Florentine borderlands. Leading a coalition of city-states, he strikes deep into the nest of Milanese vipers and their allies. Using the skills honed over a long and illustrious career, the English mercenary takes the war to the very gates of Milan, cementing his legacy as ‘Giovanni Acuto’—supreme condottiero.

The Welsh Marches, 1301. Strong-willed heiress Johane de Geneville is married to Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, at just fifteen years old. Soon Johane finds herself swept up in a world of treacherous court politics and dangerous secrets as her husband deposes Edward II and rules England alongside Queen Isabella. Yet when Roger is accused of treason, she is robbed of her freedom and must survive catastrophic events in her fight for justice - with her life, and her children's, hanging in the balance.

AD 796. Sailing in search of an object of great power, Hunlaf and his comrades are far from home when they are caught up in a violent skirmish against pirates. After the bloody onslaught, an encounter with ships from Islamic Spain soon sees them escorted under guard to the city of Qadis, one of the jewels of the Emirate of Al-Andalus and the true destination of their voyage. Hunlaf believes the Emir's lands hold the key to his search, but there are dangerous games at play.

When Hugh and Kate’s newborn son is taken to the church to be baptized, they are astounded to find that the locked font is completely dry. The possibility of a leak is quickly ruled out, and just as Hugh is beginning to wonder if there may be a sinister explanation for the stolen holy water, Father Robert is found lying motionless by the rood screen in a pool of blood.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Race of Scorpions by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks. This is the third book in the House of Niccolo series. Set in 15th-century Cyprus, this novel continues the saga of Nicholas van der Poel, international mercenary who started out as a dyer's apprentice, as he plays for the highest stakes with the greatest superpowers in Europe.

When Adrianna arrives at the small, run-down cottage, near the sea in rural Norfolk, she can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Here she can forget her life in the city, and the problems she’s left behind there, at least for a while. But – like Adrianna herself – the cottage holds secrets. And when Adrianna finds a mysterious bundle of notes hidden under a floorboard, she can’t shake the idea that they’ve been waiting for her. Especially when – in the rambling, overgrown garden – she then finds a strangely-carved stone, drawing her into a centuries-old mystery…

Greed and ambition threaten to tear the north apart. War rages between the two kingdoms of Northumbria. Kin is pitted against kin, and friend becomes foe as ambitious kings vie for supremacy. When Beobrand travels south into East Angeln to rescue a friend, he unwittingly tilts the balance of power in the north, setting in motion events that will lead to a climactic confrontation between Oswiu of Bernicia and Oswine of Deira.

The Empress has given England a male heir but that single action creates rebels in Scotland and in Normandy who try to wrest Normandy and England from King Henry. When the Earl of Cleveland becomes his champion, it unleashes a storm of murder and treachery at the very heart of the Earl's world. In a fast-moving novel with battles and combats from the borders of Scotland to France itself, we see a world heading towards anarchy and civil war.

When Bampton’s coroner, Hubert Shillside, does not return from a trip to Oxford, Master Hugh de Singleton is called. Concerned for his old friend, Hugh takes to the road to investigate. Travel is safer than in times hence but, out of sight of prying eyes, it is still unwise to travel alone. Hugh finds a body, stabbed and left to rot, but it is not the body he was expecting to find. Indeed, reports of pillage, attacks, and chaos on the roads out of Oxford suddenly seem rampant. Hugh must ascertain whether the incidents are random, or whether something darker is afoot.

Gemini represents the final appearance of Nicholas de Fleury, who opened this series as a carefree, clumsy 18-year-old apprentice in Flanders. Now he is in his 30s. The culmination of this amazing series sees Niccolo face his toughest battle yet, against an enemy who will tax every skill he has acquired over the course of the last few years....

January 1313. As London is gripped by a freezing winter, Sir Hugh Corbett becomes embroiled in a ghoulish game of kings played out between the English and French courts. Years earlier, Corbett prevented a gang of rifflers from breaking into the Royal Treasury, but the leading chieftain, Sarasin, escaped. Now Sarasin is caught killing a squire of Queen Isabella's and Corbett swiftly has the riffler tried and hanged from the signpost of The Twilight tavern.

The time is the 15th century, when intrepid merchants became the new knighthood of Europe. Among them, none is bolder or more cunning than Nicholas vander Poele of Bruges, the good-natured dyers apprentice who schemes and swashbuckles his way to the helm of a mercantile empire. Niccolo Rising, book one of the series, finds us in Bruges, 1460. Street smart, brilliant at figures, adept at the subtleties of diplomacy and the well-timed untruth, Dunnett's hero rises from wastrel to prodigy in a breathless adventure.

Westley de Lohr has a secret—he's been betrothed to the young girl who was his "best friend" when he was about five years of age. Her father was a powerful neighbor, and Westley's father, seeing an opportunity, brokered a betrothal for his youngest son. As her father's only child, she would inherit a strong fiefdom, and Christopher wanted that for his son. But things have changed.

In an Angle-land riven by contesting Danes...Hrald of Four Stones has fallen in love with Dagmar, the daughter of dead King Guthrum, who once ruled all Anglia. Dagmar is beautiful and poised; very much a king's daughter. Yet, she owns nothing but the jewels about her neck - and the secrets she carries with her.

An engineer finds himself in an alternate reality, Cornwall, in the year 715 A.D. He awakens in the body of a young Baron. James Fletcher, now the Count of Cornwall, is facing new adversaries in the Franks. They try to assassinate him and his family, precipitating a full-out war.

The fourth chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew continues the adventures of the 14th-century Cambridge physician when he is called to attend to two deaths from some poisoned wine. The opening of a new and very well-endowed college has created petty infighting amongst the academics as new appointments are made. The winter and spring have been appallingly wet, there is a fever outbreak amongst the poorer townspeople and the country is not yet fully recovered from the aftermath of the plague.

Autumn 1192. With Jerusalem still in the Saracens' hands, and a peace treaty agreed with their leader Saladin, Richard the Lionheart is free at last to travel back to his strife-ridden kingdom. By his side at every turn is the loyal knight Ferdia, also known as Rufus. Together they will face not just Richard's archenemy Philippe Capet of France, but also the king's treacherous younger brother, John.

Alan, the beadle of the manor of Bampton, had gone out at dusk to seek those who might violate curfew. When, the following morning, he had not returned home, his young wife Matilda had sought out Master Hugh de Singleton, surgeon and bailiff of the manor. Two days later Alan’s corpse was discovered in the hedge, at the side of the track to St. Andrew’s Chapel. His throat had been torn out - his head was half severed from his body - and his face, hands, and forearms were lacerated with deep scratches.

Realms of the Round Table presents for the first time an extensive collection of forgotten tales, retold for a new generation of readers by a modern-day Merlin, the world-renowned Arthurian authority, John Matthews. Contained within are a rich feast of Arthurian love stories and tales that delve deep into the darker mysteries of the Great Wood and the denizens of fantastic lands beyond.