PAWN IN FRANKINCENSE

This sequel to The Game of Kings, Queen's Play, and The Disorderly Knights continues the 16th century cloak and daguerrotype this time against the opulently ornamental background of the Ottoman Empire. Now Francis Crawford of Lymond, Comte de Sevigny, undertakes the search for his former mistress and his illegitimate son, captured by a Turkish corsair and presumably under the control of his arch-enemy, Graham Reid Malett, also and more simply called Gabriel. With Lymond is Philippa, the fifteen-year-old daughter of an old friend, and she adds a lively and determined touch as the child's crusade goes relentlessly on from village to house to harem for the bonny little byblow and "pawn of prestige." There is a duel seemingly to the death but somehow Gabriel is resurrected; not one but two infants (both branded) turn up followed by a live chess game at the close; and more than the suspicion that this is not the end as Francis, while ailing and having made a marriage in name only to Philippa, is beginning on a new journey...... Although Miss Dunnett omits the impedimenta of the period style, all of this is highly embossed and manipulated in a self-perpetuating fashion. Persevere if you will.